Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Innovating manufacturing technology in emerging economies

Nature Biotechnology volume 40, pages 1714–1716 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

To the editor — Most US- and European-based drug makers that produce biosimilar products use decades-old processes for manufacturing. Although there is no business incentive for Western manufacturers to innovate in downstream processes, the situation is very different in emerging economies. Here, we highlight two Indian companies — Biocon and Enzene Biosciences (of Alkem Laboratories) — that have boosted their competitiveness in local markets by investing in process innovation in manufacturing, enabling a reduction in costs without compromising product safety and quality. We propose that their approach could be adopted on a wider scale by other companies in emerging economies, especially where there are several market entrants seeking to gain a competitive edge. Moreover, as emerging economies continue to grow, we believe that investment in process-side innovation can provide firms in emerging economies with a competitive edge over larger counterparts in developed economies.

Biosimilars have emerged as a viable alternative to brand biologics, driving costs down by on average ~30%, with savings ranging from 10% to 51% (ref. 1). Some producer nations, such as India, South Korea and Israel, have carved out a niche in the drug industry through a focus on generics and biosimilars. However, affordability concerns are particularly pronounced in emerging markets and developing economies, where consumer purchasing power is limited and year-to-year price increases have to be substantially reduced or subsidized by the government. This means that access is variable across emerging markets2; for instance, access to anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α biologics averages roughly 20% across emerging markets (with a peak of 29% in China and a low of 6% in Brazil).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Biocon’s PlaFractor system.

References

  1. Mulcahy, A. W., Hlavka, J. P. & Case, S. R. Rand Health Q. 7, 3 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Rathore, A. S. & Shereef, F. Nat. Biotechnol. 37, 498–501 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Rathore, A. S. & Bhargava, A. Prep. Biochem. Biotechnol. 51, 1–8 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Bloomberg L.P. Annual reported financials data for major biotech and pharmaceutical companies worldwide 1/1/15 to 31/12/21 (Bloomberg Terminal, accessed 19 March 2022).

  5. FactSet Research Systems Inc. Annual reported financials data for major biotech and pharmaceutical companies worldwide 1/1/15 to 31/12/21 (FactSet Financial Data and Analytics, accessed 19 March 2022).

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Narahari Chittoor Rao and Himanshu Gadgil from Enzene Biosciences Limited and Nihal George, Manjiri Kulkarni, Vaishali Sethi and Shreehas Tambe from Biocon Biologics Limited for input about their respective companies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India

    Anurag Rathore & Faheem Shereef

Authors
  1. Anurag Rathore
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Faheem Shereef
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anurag Rathore.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rathore, A., Shereef, F. Innovating manufacturing technology in emerging economies. Nat Biotechnol 40, 1714–1716 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-022-01499-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-022-01499-5

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing