Indian pharmaceutical companies bag 40 per cent of ANDAs approved by USFDA: Report

New Delhi: According to a report by CentrumBSE -4.79 % Broking, Indian pharma companies bagged around 40% of all Abbreviated New Drug Approvals (ANDA) approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between January and July 2013. ANDA approval is a pre-requisite for marketing generic products in the US. Among the Indian companies, Sun PharmaBSE 3.03 % and Aurobindo PharmaBSE 1.35 % emerged the winners with 21 and 20 ANDA approvals respectively.

This augurs well for the Indian pharma industry, which is poised to benefit from the approvals coming at a time when rupee has faced its steepest depreciation against the US dollar. The US performance of most export-oriented pharma companies has been quite strong in the last two quarters. In the current scenario of weakening rupee, the export-oriented sector is likely to perform better than most other sectors - thanks to better realisations from the US market. Companies like Sun Pharma, LupinBSE 0.30 %, Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's Labs earn majority of their revenues from the US.

However, some companies like CiplaBSE 3.86 % have warned that the benefit may not last long since the companies would be expected to give bigger discounts on their generics to remain competitive.