With its remarkably low-cost research facilities and skilled manpower, the pharmaceutical industry in India is going to soar over the next five years, a trade association said Saturday.

Experts participating in the 22nd annual conference of Indian Pharmacy Graduates Association (IPGA) here said that the pharmaceutical sector in India would be a global leader in the near future.

"Since the past two decades, the Indian pharma sector has been evolving and is set to become a market leader by the end of 2010.

"Its cutting-edge technology, English-speaking scientists and cheap skilled manpower is drawing more attention abroad," said C.L. Kaul, director, Modi Apollo International Institute, Delhi.

Kaul said 39 percent of the total expenditure of the pharma industry is on clinical trials (CT), and India is fast moving in the direction of becoming the hotspot of CT.

According to an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) survey, the size of the Indian pharmaceutical industry will be Rs.600 billion ($13.6 billion) by 2007-08, up from Rs. 390 billion ($8.8 billion) in 2003-04.

It would substantially drive exports in generic drugs markets to regulated markets of the US and Europe.

Said B. Suresh, president, Pharmacy Council of India: "The cost of research in India is one-tenth of that in other countries, and this is going to be a great factor in getting orders and samples for clinical trials here."

However, he said pharmacists need to maintain high quality and honesty in their practice to bring outsourcing work to India.

"There is no doubt about India becoming a major power, but our pharmacists need to be ethical in their practice and show signs of excellence to get what they deserve," Suresh told.

But some experts believe that priority should be given to amending the old laws regulating this sector.

The drugs and cosmetics rules were framed before independence and need to be reviewed, and proper demarcation of educational qualification for different posts should be established.

"Being a medicine graduate in medicine, which is currently one of the qualifications, is not acceptable and this criterion should be removed.

"Any person dealing in the pharma sector needs to be a well qualified pharmacist," said P.P. Sharma, IGPA president.

IGPA, a powerful lobby of more than 3,000 pharmacists from across the country, also demanded that the qualification for registration of pharmacists should be raised from diploma, as it currently is, to degree holders.

Sharma, who is also the deputy drug controller of Delhi, said that the state Drug Control Authority had written to the central health ministry and are hopeful of getting a favourable hearing.

"India, to be a major healthcare and pharmaceutical hub, needs good quality pharmacists and hence we demand that a degree certificate in pharmacy should be the eligibility criteria to apply for registration," Sharma added.