India generic drugmakers’ woes put new focus on quality over price

A spate of regulatory warnings for India's generic drug manufacturers will add a new emphasis on the quality of such medicines in an industry long dominated by the ability to deliver treatments as cheaply as possible, analysts say. In the short term, that is expected to benefit larger global competitors, such as Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Actavis Plc and Mylan Inc, which will be called upon to supply drugs no longer available from some of their rivals in India, they said. Now the ability to supply the market and have a reliable supply, to be in good favor with the FDA, that's starting to mean something to customers," said Gabelli & Co analyst Kevin Kendra. The biggest setback for India's $14 billion a year generic drug industry came in January, when the FDA banned imports from all the Indian plants of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, India's No. 1 drugmaker by sales, over repeated production quality lapses.