Despite multiple headwinds, pharmaceutical exports from India registered a growth of 3.45 per cent to reach USD 25.39 billion (over Rs 2 lakh crore) during the last fiscal ending March 2023, according to the chief of an export promotion body under the Government of India.
Europe’s weak economic condition, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the poor drug quality allegations by the Gambia and Uzbekistan on Indian pharma companies – the last fiscal year was eventful and noted a negative growth trend but ended on a positive note.
In the fiscal year 2021-22, India recorded pharma exports of $24.6 billion (1.96 lakh crore).
Udaya Bhaskar, director general of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) – a body under the ministry of commerce and industry – told News18.com that today it’s not just India focussing on “atmanirbharta” or self-reliance, but many other countries have the same agenda.
“Many other countries including Africa, Vietnam and Indonesia are also talking about this. They want to build indigenous drug-making capabilities similar to our own mission of developing bulk drugs ourselves instead of buying from China.”
While Africa is the third-largest continent for India’s pharma exports, this year, it has reported negative growth.
Other big reasons for messing up pharma exports have been the Russia-Ukraine conflict and weak demand from CIS countries. “Russia is the fourth-largest market for our export but the sales got hampered due to the ongoing conflict in the region,” said Bhaskar. “While CIS countries account for more than a billion dollars in revenue every fiscal, this year it registered a degrowth of 10 per cent whereas Africa’s degrowth is around 7 per cent.”
Drug quality challenges
Since January, Bhaskar said, everyone was talking about the quality issues with Indian pharma companies.
While the union health ministry and the apex drug regulator have started cancelling the licences of manufacturers after finding spurious medicines, the issue needs more attention, he said.
“We welcome the initiatives taken by the ministries so far but whatever has been done is just the tip of the iceberg. The Indian drug regulator needs to do more and earn back the trust of global drug regulators and health watchdog agencies,” Bhaskar said. “We are a little late in taking these steps, but now, we need to send a strong message to global drug regulators.”
He emphasised on upgrading Schedule M – a part of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act which talks about good manufacturing practices for pharmaceuticals that should be followed by pharmaceutical manufacturing units in India.
What worked in India’s favour?
The only factor that worked in our favour was the fall in India’s imports from $9 billion to $8 billion, last fiscal.
“This could be due to multiple reasons…maybe India is able to reduce imports of active pharmaceutical ingredients or it could also be because of reduced imports of patented medicines,” said Bhaskar.
The exports to the United States, he said, have stabilised around 29-30 per cent and “have been doing well”.
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