The world market for APIs is estimated to be $46 bill by 2010, with higher growths forecast for India & China, and annual growth of 14%.

India is uniquely positioned to compete for a chunk of this global market, with 2005 sales of $2 billion and forecast sales of $4.8 billion by 2010, an average yearly growth rate of 19.3%. An expertise in chemistry skills, reasonable labor & environment costs, energy controls and competitive domestic sector are likely to make the country one of the top API manufacturers globally, outstripping China & Italy.

API sales of Indian companies are geared to highly regulated markets such as the US, supported by strong DMF documentation, GMP compliance etc. India & China accounted for 57% of the western European generic market in 2005 and were expected to hold 67% market share by 2010.

According to a Frost & Sullivan report. API market in Europe is highly competitive with large number of small & medium sized suppliers. European API suppliers face issues such as lack of capability differentiation, overcapacity, limited new product launches & a number of opportunity limiting M & A's. 80% of Europe's API were exported to the US, a market in which India & China have made inroads and are affected by efforts to streamline supply chain economics by large companies in order to rationalize costs.

At Sun Pharma, 10% of current turnover is from API sales to external customers and this does not take into account the API we use inhouse. We are able to compete with speed to market & sensible costs not only in the US generic market, but in India as well, on account of sourcing advantages. We continue to use our facilities to file interesting ANDAs including those for peptides, steroids, and hormones.