There’s a lot of talk these days about India and China as potential markets and as sources for cheap manufacturing and R&D. But the real potential of these countries is far more interesting: As China and India (and Brazil, Russia, and Korea) learn to create new products, they’re going to do it at price points that make sense for their own domestic markets—which means substantially lower than US or European prices. The drugs they create may not measure up to the standards of approval in the developed world, but those standards, these days at least, have more to do with politics and preferences than they do with a practical risk/benefit ratio.

Let the emerging market come up with low-cost must-have medicines, though, and we’ll see how long the US fights to keep them out. A handful of sucessful medicines from India and China could end up doing a remarkable amount to transform the US drug industry and US drug regulation.

I finally met a pharm exec who’s pursuing that insight as a way to build his company, when Abe Abuchowski, founder and COO of Prolong Pharmaceuticals, stopped by to visit not long ago. You’ve probably heard Abe’s name already. (more…)