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India's pharmaceutical sector has been one of the largest manufacturers of generic drugs globally. During the pandemic, most countries were dependent on imports of generic drugs from India. However, India has been relying on resources from China for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) which are the raw material for preparing generic drugs. We considered, in our analysis, branded product groups of Paracetamol and Amoxicillin due to their extensive use in the treatment of COVID-19. From a thorough market analysis of both the drugs, we conclude that firms have a monopoly over their brands but compete within the same product group and operate in their respective market under varying prices within certain bandwidths which resembles the feature of monopolistic competitive market. We have introduced compensating function a la Helpman (1981) in the pharmaceutical goods market with the assumption that an 'ideal product' exists among the pharmaceutical goods. Given the framework, this paper explores a general equilibrium model set in a monopolistic competitive product market for branded drugs. We concluded through our propositions that expanding the pharmaceutical sector will increase the employment of unskilled labor under no capacity constraint. We will observe an increase in wages of unskilled labor only under full employment conditions wherein we would observe that the expansion of pharmaceutical good will increase wages in the unskilled labor market. However we obtain an intriguing result wherein we obtain that despite instances of limiting trade dependence on China through implementation of policies like 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' and 'profit linked incentive schemes', yet to maintain the status quo in the global market for generic drugs, India's dependence on China would increase, owing to API imports due to the pandemic crisis. While India can grab the opportunity in the form of increased demand for pharmaceutical goods to increase the employment level of the economy but this improvement in welfare is also dependent on the degree of dependency of API India has on China. The Indian government has recognized the same through the incorporation of 'Covid-Suraksha' and PLI schemes to minimize import dependency, and accelerate the development of APIs and the production of indigenous drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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India, which is called the "world of pharmacy" for being a top supplier of medicines in several countries, can depend on other countries for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) and other raw materials. Although India is one of the major suppliers of high-quality medicines in several countries, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is highly dependent on China and other countries in terms of raw materials (including the production of essential medicines such as Crocin). These raw materials are called Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), also known as loose drugs. Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers import medicines from China and other countries/regions to account for about 70% of total medicine demand. This article sheds light on the important question of how India depends on other countries to obtain API and other raw materials. Also, the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the supply chain of bulk drugs, which indirectly affects the pharmaceutical manufacturers. The article concludes that this is the right time for India to remove the dependencies for bulk drugs on china and other countries and start producing their own API in the country itself. COVID-19 situation provides India an opportunity to become a preferred alternate hub for manufacturing APIs and intermediates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper is based in part upon a workshop chaired by the author at the 6th Annual Generic Drug Summit (http://www.iirusa.com/genericsummit/). in Washington, DC, USA, on 28th September. The title of the workshop was ‘Strategic Sourcing in the generic drug industry in the US’. One of the objectives of the workshop was to examine the trend in the level of activity of API manufacturers in developing products for the US market and to discuss some basic principles that the sourcing manager can apply to make good business decisions sourcing APIs for the generic pharmaceutical company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a severe pathophysiological condition characterized by pulmonary artery remodeling and continuous increases in pulmonary artery pressure, which may eventually develop to right heart failure and death. Although newly discovered and incredible treatment strategies in recent years have improved the prognosis of PH, limited types of effective and economical drugs for PH still makes it as a life-threatening disease. Some drugs from Chinese materia medica (CMM) have been traditionally applied in the treatment of lung diseases. Accumulating evidence suggests active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) derived from those medicines brings promising future for the prevention and treatment of PH. In this review, we summarized the pharmacological effects of APIs derived from CMM which are potent in treating PH, so as to provide new thoughts for initial drug discovery and identification of potential therapeutic strategies in alternative medicine for PH., (Copyright © 2021 China Pharmaceutical University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)