| Type | Conference presentation |
| Event | GLOBELICS Conference 2006 |
| Organized by | GLOBELICS Network |
| Location | Trivandrum, India |
| Date | October 4–7, 2006 |
| Role | Paper presenter & discussant |
| Slides | Download the presentation (PDF) |
A talk delivered at the GLOBELICS Conference 2006, Trivandrum, India (October 4–7, 2006).
In short: Why overseas acquisition tends to beat building from scratch as a route abroad for Indian pharmaceutical firms — argued through a competitive-advantage framework and the Ranbaxy case.
About the talk
This presentation examined a strategic choice facing Indian pharmaceutical companies as they internationalised after the 1990s: whether to expand abroad by building their own operations from scratch (greenfield investment) or by acquiring existing foreign companies. Setting the question within the industry’s longer evolution — from foreign-MNC dominance to the rise of globally competitive domestic firms — the talk weighed the competitive merits of each route and argued, through both theory and a detailed company case, that acquisition generally offers the stronger set of advantages.
What the talk covered
- The four stages of Indian pharma’s internationalisation (from 1947 onward) — from an era of multinational dominance to the emergence of globally competitive domestic firms.
- A competitive comparison of the two routes: greenfield builds exactly what a firm wants but is slow to reach a market; acquisition delivers instant market presence, established marketing networks, new products, and operating synergies.
- The argument that acquisition tends to win — because it offers what greenfield does plus additional competitive advantages — presented as a theoretical case rather than a statistical result.
- A case study of Ranbaxy’s overseas acquisitions (Ohm Laboratories, Basics GmbH, and the RPG Aventis business) illustrating how deals brought market access and intangible assets.
Get the slides
The full presentation is available as a PDF:
⇩ Download the presentation (PDF)
Related research on this site
This presentation draws on the author’s published work:
- From Local Players to Global Hunters: Should Indian Pharma Companies Buy or Build? — the full working paper (Pradhan & Alakshendra, ISID Working Paper No. WP2006/07, 2006).