Pfizer, Abbott absence at PM breakfast meeting gets noticed

Two of the top 10 US pharmaceutical giants in India by their India business sales - Abbott and Pfizer - did not figure in the guest list for the breakfast meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US on September 29.

Abbott is the top pharma company by sales in India and Pfizer is the 10th largest, according to AIOCD-AWACS, which ranks drug companies based on their tablet or capsule sales in India. Pfizer is one of the largest globally by revenues also.

More importantly, Pfizer is seen as a company that has serious concerns with the Indian intellectual property policy. A case in point is a statement made by Roy F. Waldron, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel, Pfizer Inc., in March 2013 before a US Congress Committee on Ways and Means. "Experience accumulated after India began granting product patents in 2005 shows it has routinely flouted trade rules to bolster the Indian generic industry at the expense of innovators," he had said.

Waldron had further said: "The Government of India has essentially created a protectionist regime that harms US job creators. The harm is evident in pharmaceuticals where the United States has welcomed Indian generic companies while India is closing its borders to US innovators. Correcting India's protectionist intellectual property regime will require firm leadership by the United States in international organizations and in India."

Among the companies invited for Modi's meeting were Merck and Hospira. While both are major players globally, they are not leading in the Indian market. According to the AIOCD-AWACS ranking, Merck stands at 33rd in India.

Without wanting to comment on those not included and their concerns, D.G. Shah, Secretary General of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) said: "Only a sober face of US branded pharma was invited to the breakfast meeting."

Others feel the opportunity that a meeting like this provided could have been better leveraged by both Indian government as well as by leading US pharma majors.

"There should have been more efforts by both the Indian side to reach out to leading pharma companies like Pfizer to address their concerns and the leading global MNCs could have also tried to reach out to the Indian prime minister to bring their concerns to his notice," says Kewal Handa, former managing director of Pfizer India, who now runs health-care advisory firm Salus Lifecare.