Recently The New York Times reported the following:
America Wants to Make More Generic Drugs. India Shows Why That’s Hard. (1/2)
Cheap labor and global supply chains are among the
obstacles to President Trump’s plan to bring generic drug manufacturing back
home.
By Alex Travelli - Alex Travelli reported from Hyderabad and
Digwal, in the Indian state of Telangana, with photographs by Harsha Vadlamani.
Emily Elconin shot photographs in Riverview, Mich.
Oct. 2, 2026
Most people have never heard of the F.T.O. U-3 factory in
Hyderabad, India, but its products affect millions of Americans intimately.
Inside the sprawling facility, about 1,900 Indian workers for Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories work around the clock to manufacture more than 100 generic drugs, including antihistamines, statins and antidepressants. Of the nearly one billion oral doses produced there each month, 75 percent go to patients in the United States.
The scale of India’s pharmaceutical industry has made it a cornerstone of the global drug supply. In a high-volume, low-margin business, India’s ability to make pills at a small fraction of what they would cost elsewhere has created an almost insurmountable hurdle for the United States, which is trying to bring that production home.
President Trump has said he wants to bring generic drug production back to America, using tariffs to pressure pharmaceutical companies.
In a July social media post, Mr. Trump said he planned to impose a 100 percent tariff on generic drugs starting in 2028, followed by a 200 percent tariff a year later, when his term will have expired. Generics account for 90 percent of drugs prescribed in the United States, and 40 percent of them are made in India.
When the United States imposed a new 100 percent tariff on
certain pharmaceutical imports on Tuesday, it exempted generic drugs and many
other products. Doctors and supply chain experts say taxing imported generics
would raise costs, spur rationing and lead to shortages of crucial drugs.
Even a 200 percent tariff on generic drugs might not erase India’s advantage. Sudarshan Jain, secretary general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, estimates that most tablets and liquids made in India would cost at least four times as much to produce in the United States.
India got its start in generics in the 1970s by prioritizing affordable drugs for its huge and mostly poor population at a time when Western multinational drug companies did not. For decades, India refused to recognize drug patents, while its manufacturers patented processes they devised to reverse-engineer medicines sold in wealthier markets.
By the time India’s patent law was brought into accordance with World Trade Organization standards in 2005, its companies had become experts at processing complex drugs and producing them for much of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Around the same time, Americans started embracing generic drugs. By 2004, they started to account for more than half of prescriptions filled in the United States.
The greatest profits come from patented drugs, so “in the U.S., once it goes out of patent, you forget about it,” Mr. Jain said. “But in India, the entrepreneurs keep on working and developing it, and at these volumes, you get better at making it.”
That business is poised to grow. Over the next five to seven years, Mr. Jain said, 55 major patents worth $300 billion a year will expire in the United States, widening the pipeline for Indian manufacturers.
India’s advantage is not just expertise. Peter DeYoung, the American-born chief executive of Piramal Global Pharma in Mumbai, runs more than a dozen factories, including in Europe and the United States. In America, he said, labor is the highest cost “by a wide margin,” followed by energy and materials. In India, it’s the reverse: Materials are the greatest cost and workers the least.
Mennisha Paka, 23, supervises a line at the F.T.O. U-3 factory for Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, packaging generic metoprolol, a beta blocker prescribed to heart patients. She earns $3,840 a year and uses part of her salary to pursue a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical chemistry. One of her subordinates, Susmita, who goes by one name, earns about $2,000 a year.
Both women make less than one-tenth the average salary of a worker in pharmaceutical manufacturing in the United States.
(to be continued)
Translation
美國希望生產更多仿製藥。印度的例子顯示這有多麼困難 (1/2)
廉價勞動力和全球供應鏈是特朗普總統將仿製藥生產帶回國內計劃面臨的主要障礙
大多數人從未聽說過位於印度 Hyderabad 的 F.T.O. U-3工廠，但它的產品卻與數百萬美國人的生活息息相關。
在這座龐大的工廠裡，約1,900名印度工人為 Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories 日夜不停地生產100多種仿製藥，包括抗組織胺、降膽固醇藥和抗憂鬱藥。該廠每月生產的近10億劑口服藥物中，75%銷往美國。
印度製藥業的規模使其成為全球藥品供應的基石。在藥品生產量大、利潤率低的行業中，印度能夠以遠低於其他地區的價格生產藥品，這給試圖將藥品生產遷回國內的美國設置了幾乎無法逾越的障礙。
特朗普總統曾表示，他希望將仿製藥生產帶回美國，並利用關稅向製藥公司施壓。
特朗普在7月的一篇社交媒體貼文中表示，他計劃從2028年開始對仿製藥徵收100%的關稅，一年後，也就是他任期屆滿時，再將關稅提高到200%。仿製藥佔美國處方藥的90%，其中40%產自印度。
週二，美國對某些藥品進口徵收了100%的新關稅，但仿製藥和許多其他產品卻被豁免。醫生和供應鏈專家表示，對進口仿製藥徵稅會推高成本導致配給制，並造成關鍵藥物短缺。
即使對仿製藥徵收200%的關稅，也未必能消除印度的優勢。印度製藥聯盟秘書長Sudarshan Jain估計，印度生產的大多數片劑和液體藥物，在美國的生產成本至少是四倍。
印度的仿製藥發展始於1970年代，當時西方跨國製藥公司並未優先考慮為龐大且大多貧困的人口提供價格合理的藥物。幾十年來，印度一直拒絕承認藥品專利，而其製藥商則為他們研發的逆向工程藥物製程申請專利，這些製程旨在仿製在較富裕市場銷售的藥物。
2005年印度的專利法與世界貿易組織標準接軌時，印度的製藥公司已成為加工複雜藥物並將其銷往亞洲、非洲和拉丁美洲大部分地區的專家。大約在同一時期，美國人也開始接受仿製藥。到了2004年，印度藥在美國處方藥市場佔超過一半的份額。
Jain說最大的利潤來自專利藥，因此 “在美國，一旦專利期過了，你就得放手” ， “但在印度，企業家們會繼續研發，而且在如此大的產量下，生產流程也會不斷改進。”
這項業務蓄勢待發。Jain 表示，未來五到七年，美國將有55項價值3,000億美元的主要專利到期，這將為印度製造商拓寬市場管道。
印度的優勢不僅在於專業技術。在孟買的 Piramal Global Pharma 製藥公司執行長 Peter DeYoung出生於美國正在經營十幾家工廠，包括在歐洲和美國的工廠。他表示，在美國，勞動力成本 “遙遙領先” ，其次是能源和原材料。而在印度，情況則相反：原料成本最高，而勞動成本最低。
23歲的 Mennisha Paka 在 Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories 的F.T.O. U-3工廠負責一條生產線，包裝通用名為metoprolol的仿製藥，這是一種用於治療心臟病的β受體阻斷劑。她年薪3,840美元，並用部分工資攻讀藥物化學學士學位。她的下屬蘇Susmita（她只有單個名字）年薪約2,000美元。
這兩位女性的收入都不到美國製藥業工人平均薪資的十分之一。
