The Indian state of Telangana is renowned as a hub for the country’s pharmaceutical industry, accounting for 35–40% of national pharma production, and its position will strengthen with the completion of Hyderabad Pharma City, which is currently under construction. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, both of which are central-south states, have the most pharma CMO manufacturing out of all Indian states, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Telangana has more than double the amount of European Medicines Agency (EMA) and/or Food and Drug (FDA)-approved pharmaceutical facilities as Andhra Pradesh, at 173 facilities and 75 facilities, respectively. Major pharma companies and CMOs such as Mylan NV, Albany Molecular Research Inc, and Cambrex Corp have manufacturing facilities in Telangana.

Adam Bradbury, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData, commented: “Half of this state’s pharma manufacturing facilities are involved in API manufacture. Most facilities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are owned by domestic Indian pharmaceutical companies. In line with the global perception of a strong generics manufacturing industry in India, the majority of these regions’ facilities offer small molecule API manufacturing.

“Unlike other Indian states covered in previous EMOR articles, there is an unusually high number of CMOs with multiple facilities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. This may be attributable to larger CMOs being headquartered in these states and heavily investing in the region. Nonetheless, the majority of facilities (62%) belong to companies with a single site in the region, which indicates the large merger and acquisition (M&A) potential of the Indian industry as the value of the market increases.”

One company, Aurobindo Pharma Ltd has 17 facilities in the region. The company markets a wide range of its own drugs and provides contract services for generic drugs and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs). It has five facilities in Andhra Pradesh and 12 in Telangana, roughly equivalent to the overall facilities split in the region. It has only two facilities located outside the region, in the US and Rajasthan, India.