North America and Europe have traditionally been the major pharmaceutical producers. However, in recent years, because of increased demand from local population and low production costs, new markets such as India, China, Brazil and Russia, among others, have emerged. The growing pharmaceutical infrastructure in these emerging markets is spurring the demand for high-purity water systems, creating opportunity for water management companies. In addition, many developed and developing nations are imposing stringent effluent standards on the wastewater discharged from drug manufacturing facilities, in order to prevent contamination of water streams.

The most important factor driving growth is the emergence of Asian countries such as India and China as key manufacturing hub for generic drugs and APIs. India has over 100 FDA approved drug manufacturing facilities - the highest for any country outside USA. The Asian market for water and wastewater treatment equipment in the pharmaceutical industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.5 per cent from 2010 to 2017.

Stricter Discharge Standards in Established Markets to Compel Focus on Sustainable and Advanced Water Treatment Technologies

Pharmaceutical companies in North America and Europe are outsourcing certain portions of the drug production process to Asian countries and are keen to focus more on research and drug development. This move could reduce the number of new pharmaceutical production facilities in these regions in the future. In North America and Europe, the replacement and refurbishment segment are anticipated to offer more potential than new builds. With many countries in these regions outsourcing their operations to Asian countries the water and wastewater treatment equipment market in these regions is expected to grow at the rate of around 5-6% annually.

In North America and Europe, effluent discharge standards for pharmaceutical production facilities are set to become more stringent in the future. Strict effluent discharge standards will force pharmaceutical production facilities to adopt advanced treatment technologies and also focus on sustainable technologies that would facilitate the generation of energy from their wastewater. This would enable them to reduce the operational costs associated with wastewater treatment plants.

Technology

The following technologies are covered in the research:

Reverse Osomosis/DMI
EDI, UF/MF
Ion exchange
Disinfection UV/ozone