GSK's India strategy could come full circle

More Indian news from GlaxoSmithKline. CEO Andrew Witty is traveling this week in India, meeting with reporters along the way, and that's put GSK in the headlines almost daily. Witty's been talking deals (he's in favor of them) and drug prices (they have to be flexible) and strategy (grow via deals and organically in poor and middle-income countries).

Now, Witty tells the local Economic Times that he has a long, long time line for his India strategy. After all, he's seen the country evolve over the last 10 years--he ran India operations around 2000. "This conversation is not about the next quarter but it is about the next 10 or 20 years," he explains.

Second, he's not interested in selling generics in the U.S. or Europe. If GSK were to buy a company that has an American generics division, "We will sell it." He's more interested in the complete opposite: Branded drugs in emerging markets.

Third, one of the ways he's planning to make price cuts a reality in India is by cutting the production cost of those products. The company will drive down production costs in part via alliances with local firms, he said, and by driving internal efficiencies. Doing that won't just enable flexible pricing in India, but allow GSK to export those low-production-cost drugs. Maybe even back home to the U.S. and Europe.

- read the ET story

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