Singapore: In a new trend, Chinese drugmakers have been hiring Indian scientists, with a view to boost the country's formulation business. As per some reports, Indian chemists have been lured with three times the pay package for strengths in documentation and English language.

According to an Edelweiss report of November 2014, though India and China has almost equal number of FDA approved facilities, India got approvals for more than 300 drug master files (DMFs) accounting for nearly a third in the US market, whereas China lagged with around 150 DMFs approved.

Reports suggest that China has already recruited around 50-60 Indian pharmaceutical professionals over last few years and that the Chinese pharmaceutical companies are offering tempting compensations, almost double and at times, triple of what Indian firms pay.

Confirming the trend, director general of India's Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil)Mr PV Appaji told ET, "Several instances of certain leading Chinese pharmaceutical firms hiring top Indian pharmaceutical scientists have come to our notice. It could be aimed at augmenting filing of abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) in the US and other regulated markets as China is currently building huge capacities to produce copycat medicines. We guess this trend should over a period."