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Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
The analogy I would make is that university biomedical researchers are like authors, and pharmaceutical companies are like publishers. India is like someone on this board who hardly ever reads a pirated book, but might in a rare special situation.
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Not a bad analogy.
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As for it taking hundreds of person-years to get US and EU governmental approvals, that's true. But how much value is there, to India, in that approval process? One can argue the point. Tests mandated in the West are not geared to how the drug may be used in India.
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Actually, the testing carried out for US and EU approval do have value in other jurisdictions as the tests are to show safety and efficacy. Efficacy and safety do not recognize national borders.
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Also, Western drug companies spend more more on marketing than R&D. They'll tell you that a lot of the marketing is for drug reps to help the docs use their products more effectively. Regardless of whether you buy this, I don't think many of those drug reps are visiting India.
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Big Pharma is not really into new drug discovery any more and hasn't been for at least 2 decades. When a Big Pharma acquires a new product, the accounting does not allocate the purchase price to R&D. $100s of millions may have been spent of development up to the point of being acquired, but it is accounted for as goodwill.
Accounting is not a substitute for reality.