Indian pharma scientists commanding U.S. wages – in India
Interesting post from the Business Standard: Pharma R&D heads call the shots. They report that top pharma scientists in India are commanding wages at or near U.S. rates with significant perks such as the operating in the U.S. for six months or round-trip tickets for their families.
The impact of this strong compensation is that it begins to erode the strong financial incentive to offshore work to India. It is also a sign that India’s pharmaceutical industry is maturing. Note that while top scientists are well compensated, their compensation is an order of magnitude greater than that of second- or third-level scientists.
Do not forget that India (companies from India) always pitches on low cost intially and then ascend the value chain with clear demontsration of vlaue added tot he project/process. So the profitability of the Biz model continues to climb with time. When it comes the process capabilties especially the optimization, we compare with the best in the world. Just because salaries in India are on the rise, I dont think that offshoring work to India would decrease in the short run.