Innovation, not original research alone, is the order of the day.

MNCs will make an aggressive bid for the Indian market, as India moves towards TRIPS, and international companies register their new drugs for patenting after 10 years.

Smaller companies, which had so far benefited from the protective regime, may be forced to become contracting units, or close shop.

Generics will have a huge demand.

Increasing R&D costs will lead to more consolidation among international companies. Within 5 years, the top ten pharma companies will control over 60% of the world market.

International companies could set up their own R&D labs in India and develop drugs for tropical diseases.

Innovations in R&D process such as genomics and combinatorial chemistry.

Indian pharma companies are expected to move up the value chain from merely being reverse engineers to developers of proprietary products in the US market.