Acquisitions and alliances are a way to grow for most global pharma companies in India – a key country in emerging markets. But they know, to grow their portfolio here, field force expansions and investments in more products is critical. "We want to make sure our business stays current and evolve with India. We want to assemble a bigger portfolio of medicines at different prices," said Andrew Witty, Glaxosmithkline. For GSK it is a thrust on vaccines, which will see the company expand footprint in India.

Sanofi is looking at expanding penetration through initiatives for the secondary markets and for global leader Pfizer, which wants to strengthen its cardiovascular and central nervouse system segments also, new launches in areas where the company is not present will do the trick.

"Our present market coverage is just about 45 per cent and we would like to grow it to 70-75 per cent of the market coverage, which will give us more strength across all therapeutic categories," said Kewal Handa, MD of Pfizer.

Integration with Wyeth is a core focus for Pfizer, the world's number one drug maker, and analysts expect more visibility of brands co-promoted by the merged entity to come in 2010.

"We are focusing on operational integration and are looking at sharing products and co-promotion," said Handa.

Even as they need to grow organically in a market is growing at 13-14 percent CAGR, all eyes are still on their acquisition targets. And till the time valuations touch the sky, global companies foresee more alliances to help each other grow.