Drug bust

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: The New York Times

India’s leading drug companies are aggressively challenging patents because they are having trouble making much money by simply selling generic versions of drugs whose patents have already expired.

The United States — their primary market — is becoming particularly price-competitive among generics. “Generic products are mostly undifferentiated, and ever-larger numbers of companies are offering products to a small number of large buyers,” said Charley Beever, a vice-president and the head of the worldwide pharmaceutical practice at the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in New York.

Three large wholesalers, five major retail chains and three large mail-order suppliers constitute the bulk of drug buyers in the United States, the world’s largest prescription drug market at $260 billion a year.

Ranbaxy losing the Lipitor case in Delaware will have a dampening effect on all India’s generic drug makers, said Tarun Shah, an analyst with the pharmaceutical research firm Mehta Partners, based in New York. “As companies realise, there is no more a jackpot at the end of this.”

International Herald Times
Education gaps

In a country where millions of educated young people are unemployed, why do call centres feel compelled to give pay raises of 10 percent to 15 percent a year? Why don’t they boot out the highly paid workers and grab the eager aspirants? And why do they offer their employees free dance lessons on top of a $4,000 annual wage — worth $36,000 when adjusted for purchasing power in the local currency — when they cannot pass on the increase in costs to the US bank or the European insurance company that is paying for the call centers’ services?

The answers may have a lot to do with India’s education system. To maintain its global share of 65 percent in information technology and 46 percent in business-process outsourcing, the country will need 2.3 million professionals by 2010.

According to McKinsey’s calculations, India may face a deficit of as many as 500,000 workers. As much as 70 percent of the shortage will crop up in call centers and other back-office businesses, where proficiency in English is the No. 1 prerequisite for landing a job.

A labour shortage is bound to surface unless India’s colleges can produce more employable graduates. McKinsey makes just that point. Currently, only about “10-15 percent of general college graduates are suitable for employment” in the outsourcing industry, it says.