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A study linking Indian-made generic drugs to a higher risk of serious side effects in the US has drawn backlash from the industry’s most influential lobby group, as India moves to defend its dominant market share amid trade tensions under President Donald Trump.The study, which analyzed more than 2,400 drugs sold in the US between 2009 and 2018, found that Indian generics were associated with a 54% greater risk of serious adverse events — including hospitalization, disability, and death — compared with equivalent domestically made medicines. The research links operations and supply chain issues in the manufacturing process as “most likely” explaining the findings.Published last month in the journal Production and Operations Management, the findings prompted a three-page statement from the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, which represents two dozen of the country’s largest drugmakers.“We strongly disagree with the study’s premise that differences in operations and supply chain factors — suppliers, manufacturing and/or distribution practices by different manufacturers — impact the quality and efficacy of Indian generic drugs,” the industry body said in its response. Still, last month’s study — led by researchers with experience working with the US Food and Drug Administration — adds to mounting concerns over the quality of Indian-made medicines. India, the world’s largest supplier of generic medicines, produces about a fifth of the global supply and its 752 FDA-compliant factories meet roughly 40% of US demand for non-patented medications.Between 2018 and 2024, US pharmaceutical imports from India nearly doubled to $13 billion, underscoring the growing influence of the country’s drugmakers. Meanwhile, Trump has warned companies to move production to the US or face tariffs of up to 25%, a move that could further strain pharmaceutical firms with rising costs.Regulatory lapses at Indian factories — including unsanitary conditions, poorly trained staff, and shredded paperwork — have raised concerns worldwide, as many countries rely on India for essential medicines. In 2022, tainted cough syrup was linked to the deaths of dozens of children in Gambia and Uzbekistan, while more recently, contaminated eye drops caused blindness in US patients.‘Quality Corner-Cutting’The authors of last month’s study suggested that “quality corner-cutting” due to cost pressures likely explains their findings. Drugs that had been on the market longer were more frequently linked to adverse events, possibly because manufacturers faced growing pressure to reduce operational and supply-chain costs.The office of the Drugs Controller General of India and the US FDA didn’t respond to requests for comment on the research.The study is the first to link a large sample of drugs to their manufacturing plants, using the Structured Product Labeling dataset, which contains detailed information on each drug approved for sale in the US, including its application number and production facility. However, the analysis didn’t associate specific adverse events with particular classes of medications.“Our logic and results together imply that manufacturers in India are, on average, operating in a way that results in more quality risk than those in the US, particularly when the drug has been on the market for a relatively long amount of time,” the authors wrote.There is a widespread assumption that generic drugs are the same when they have the same dosage form and route of administration, said study co-author John Gray, a dean’s distinguished professor of operations and business analytics at Ohio State University, in an interview.The Indian pharma body said it believes that the use of data of adverse events to conclude product quality has limitations such as reporting biases and inability to establish causality. “There has been a significantly greater engagement that the Indian industry and the regulator have had with the FDA in addressing manufacturing and quality operations in the Indian subcontinent,” the Indian pharma alliance said, adding that the FDA’s enforcement of quality through measures including routine inspections is adequate.118959296The authors urged the FDA to strengthen oversight, particularly through unannounced inspections. The agency has already increased inspections of Indian factories by 46% between 2014 and 2024, with instances of objectionable conditions rising 38% in the same period, according to its database.“The FDA mandates things, but firms can voluntarily do quite a bit on their own,” the authors noted. Drugmakers should compete on quality and transparency, making it easier for buyers to assess standards. They suggested companies include quality data on labels, benchmark themselves against peers using public records, and leverage superior quality to attract buyers.The study also called for greater transparency in drug quality, arguing that rewarding better manufacturers with stronger demand and higher prices could help push inferior players out of the market.

Benchmark BSE Sensex dropped by 72 points on Wednesday, extending its losing run to the fourth day as IT shares retreated due to concerns over US growth.Stocks that were in focus include names like Swiggy, which fell 1.2% and RVNL, which gained 0.8% and TVS Motor, whose shares declined 1.5% on Wednesday.Here's what Viral Chheda, Sr Analyst at SSJ Finance and Securities, recommends investors should do with these stocks when the market resumes trading today.SwiggyThe stock is experiencing sideways momentum with key resistance at Rs 380 and support at Rs 340. Buying is advised only if it sustains above Rs 380, indicating strength.Current volume trends appear weak, suggesting a lack of strong buying interest. If Rs 340 is broken, the stock could decline further towards Rs 300.RVNLThe stock is moving in a consolidation phase, with resistance at Rs 393 and support at Rs 310. A breakout above Rs 390 is necessary for a bullish move, as volumes remain low.The Rs 310 level serves as a crucial support, and if breached, the stock may slide to Rs 290. Caution is advised until a decisive move occurs.TVS MotorThe stock is showing bullish momentum with strong support at Rs 2170 and resistance at Rs 2360. Buying is recommended with a stop loss at Rs 2170, as volumes indicate healthy participation.If the stock sustains above resistance, it may see further upside. The overall trend remains positive, favoring a buy-on-dips strategy.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

His birthday parties in downtown Manhattan; purchases of Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough paintings as well as the palatial Conholt Park estate make as much headlines as his billion dollar take home packet last year or his reading of global geopolitics impacting risk capital, but for Stephen A Schwarzman CEO of Blackstone Group, being a psychology major and learning ballet as an undergraduate student could arguably equip a person with the agility needed to negotiate today’s volatile world. The world’s largest alternative asset manager with $1 trillion of assets under management says the uncertainty is opening up growth opportunities to deploy capital in areas as diverse as private credit, artificial intelligence and data centres. On a trip to India to mark Blackstone’s 20th year in the country, Schwarzman (78) took time out to discuss Donald Trump, tech-arms race, the importance of electricity in the age of AI, India growth plans and what he loses sleep over in an interview Edited excerpts. You have a portfolio of over 250 companies. How does one deploy capital in such a volatile world and how does one hedge existing bets? Two hundred and fifty is just equity investments. We have lent to over 2,000 companies. In almost every case where we commit capital, whether it's debt or equity, we test the company's ability to handle its obligations in an adverse environment. It's not just how things work today but we go back historically or we see how bad bad can be and then set up an investment at a discount so that we can easily survive the worst set of outcomes. For us, when something unfortunate happens, we are set up to ensure our monies are protected. That has served us very well. We always have to anticipate the downside so when you have a time where there's volatility or something can go wrong, you know you can ride through that. It might affect our returns ultimately, but the first rule is to preserve capital.Twenty years in India is a big milestone for Blackstone-you've had a great run here. What would you say your dream is for Blackstone India for the next 20 years? My dream...  It would not take us another 20 years to get to this size where we are now ($50 billion of India AUM).  It would involve the continued growth of two of our existing areas - real estate and private equity. But we'd be adding at least three new areas or verticals shortly. They are infrastructure ($60 billion of global AUM currently) and credit ($450 billion AUM), both of which could be very sizable businesses. Finally, it would be distribution of our products to the wealth clients in India. All the three could become very substantial.How soon are you planning to roll this out in India?I cannot put a specific date, but we are actively considering these alternatives. So, you asked me for my fantasy or dream? It's at least double the number of verticals that we are in right now and grow those as quickly as we think is financially responsible. So, we could be significantly larger than what we are now. So instead of two things growing, we can have five things growing simultaneously. You are back after a gap of five years. How bullish are you on India at the moment? I am quite bullish. It's one of the few places in the world where the population keeps going up-most places it's shrinking. You also have a young population. As they grow older, they would need a whole variety of goods and services that are much more than what a mature population would need. Plus, people are smart here and that's a real asset. More importantly they are comfortable with technology, which is the biggest growth area in the world. India has a stable government, a functioning democracy.  The current government is trying to make improvements in regulation and debottlenecking the economy.  As long as people here recognise that the approach is the right approach and keep it going, then there's no rational reason to expect that the country won't continue to do very well.  The question is how soon can you have people who have a low income get higher income. When that starts happening, that's a huge flywheel for growth.There is unprecedented geoeconomic fragmentation, or risk of it. Will this lower global growth rates? Globalisation has created prosperity in the last few decades. It's in retreat around the world, especially as trade wars intensify. Do you see this impeding growth? Whenever you go through some dramatic changes like this where there's friction that's put into the system that wasn't there before, then the odds are that, to some degree, it should affect global economic growth.You're not unduly concerned? That's putting a value judgment on it. It depends on the position you are in. There are still things you can invest in that will be extremely successful even in the scenario that you just mentioned. For example, there is a huge demand for data centres in the US. It is estimated that $1 trillion of investments are needed in the US alone and another $1 trillion outside. This is despite the relationship between the two countries that you mentioned (the US and China). Global growth may get slower than what it would have been but even then, there will be growth in these pockets which can do very well. The exact degree of slowness cannot be measured at the moment as it’s just directional. But still there are interesting things where you can invest which won’t suffer.Will reciprocal tariffs hurt the US economy? It will make input costs go up for US corporates and will also have broader implications for the world and global markets? It's stimulating inbound investments into the US on a large scale. It is starting to happen. Non-US companies are bringing their business to the US. That's a very important offset because in the last 20-25 years, the US manufacturing base has substantially diminished and transferred to lower-cost areas or geographies. If you can imagine a scenario where there's lots of investments, construction and operations in the US that aren't there today, I think that is what the US plan is. That's also why there's a desire to have lower corporate tax rates. And if you put that together, a foreign company could get a lower tax rate and no tariffs if they manufacture in the US. They could also use it as a platform for exports. Depending upon such influx of new capital and manufacturing expertise, there is potentially quite a positive impact on the US economy. And I think that is part of the overall plan.You are one of the OGs when it comes to AI. But beyond AI and data centres, what are some of the biggest shifts you are trying to capitalise upon?One area which is deeply linked to the growth of both AI and data centres is the issue of electricity.  In the US, over the last 10-to-15 years, electricity has only grown two-tenths of 1%. We keep a buffer reserve of like 15% of unused electricity, just for safety. As per projections, with the boom in AI and data centres, the growth rate of electricity is meant to go up to approximately 4% a year. This is a stunning change. One of the most interesting areas for investment in the developed world is anything to do with electricity. And that goes from owning utilities or parts of them or owning the suppliers to the electricity grids.  Those companies or suppliers have been used to no growth. So, they've been very inexpensive. Who wants to buy something that never grows after all? But now they're all going into a rapid growth mode and this is a massive paradigm shift. This is irrespective of the kind of electricity- renewables or natural gas. However, you can't build renewables fast enough and they're not 100% reliable, unless you're in the Middle East where there is ample sunlight and wind.  So, you have to have another way of generating electricity. The best fuel for that is natural gas. That changes a lot of things. The energy complex is so large that the demand is going to be enormous. LNG export is just one of the fallouts from that. This is really just a huge and unexpected change in the global economy.Talking about electricity, how viable are small and modular nuclear reactors that Bill Gates and others are championing?There are some interesting ideas, but nobody has any idea what will happen. It would be a wonderful solution, if it works. In the short term of the next five years, I don't know if anyone has the sense that the nuclear options would be effective. And then you have to build these things. I think it's going to take a while to figure it out and then manufacture and get tested and so forth.Since you also spoke about data centres and AI as well as energy, are you focussing more on the hardware side of things or taking bets on the software side as well?At the moment, we are mostly in the picks and shovels. With hard assets, we don't have to bet on which AI application will be the right one. Currently, there's an enormous amount of money poured into that first question. As a firm, Blackstone is quite conservative. We live by the principle of: don't lose money. When you make a commitment, make a big one but never at the risk of your capital. Some firms have done well taking really big bets and losing capital on a very large percentage of what they do but having some spectacular wins. I guess it's a matter of taste. That's not what we do. It's too early for us. What makes Stephen Schwarzman lose sleep? Is it Trump, trade wars, tariffs, technology arms race? The biggest risk today is dramatic changes in capital flows. If countries start retaliating by not permitting free flow of capital or investments, then that is an unpredictable risk. The kind you just talked about can lead to a different order of things, but I am not as much worried about that as I am on capital flows. Free flow of capital will ensure you can pretty much figure all the other things out. But if we end up with a world where that stops and every country just becomes an island, then that imperils the global system.