India's wide-ranging drug regulation overhaul plan, including a perpetual licensing system aimed at simplifying processes and potentially delinking licensing and enforcement responsibilities may well emerge as a double-edged sword.

Heavy-weight United Nations panel makes tough recommendations favoring compulsory licensing – an issue that has riled Big Pharma but has at least one industry proponent, Cipla's chair Yusuf Hamied, who talked to the Pink Sheet about the "excesses" of intellectual property rights.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has divested its API arm to the Nirma group for over $681m, a move that will deleverage the drug maker’s balance sheet as it seeks to evolve into an “innovative/brand led organization.”