The Indian pharmaceutical sector "was once notorious for making cheap knockoffs of Western medicines" to sell in developing countries, says the New York Times, but now it is a manufacturing center of drugs to sell worldwide. "What I see happening now is manufacturing and even packaging and even formulation are moving to India," says Jim Worrell, the chief executive of Pharma Services Network.
There still are, however, questions about knock-off and counterfeit drugs, and FDA has opened an office in Mumbai and one in Delhi to "verify that important products and the way they are manufactured meet US health and safety requirements," a FDA spokesperson tells the Times.