Thursday, June 8 2006 10:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India will have to take a leaf out of China to address regulatory and infrastructure challenges so as to enable its pharmaceutical industry to be a global leader, even as the sector is set to emerge from the confines of the generics market to become a regional hub for R&D, manufacturing and exports within the next decade, a report by KPMG International has said.

"India needs to look to the achievements of China, where the government's strong commitment pro-industry policies have produced a positive environment that not only offer drug manufacturers a product patent regime but also, and crucially, data protection," the report said, adding that India's continuing failure to do so needed to be urgently rectified.

"There is much to do in terms of addressing further regulatory and infrastructure challenges and the industry will have to work closely and swiftly with the government to address these issues," Global Head of KPMG's Pharmaceuticals Practice John Morris said while releasing the report.

Under the current regulatory environment, India still offers no data protection whereas China does, the report said, adding that domestic pricing also remained an issue, which needed to be addressed.

"In fact, drug prices in the Indian domestic market are the lowest in the world. Industry leaders will have to work with government on issues of affordability to point out that price controls are limited in their ability to increase access to new and effective treatments," it said.