Pharma exports in 2021-22 remained flat at $ 24 billion

Hyderabad: The pharmaceutical exports from India from April 2021 to March 2022 stood at $ 24.6 billion (about Rs 1.94 lakh crore. These exports were just 0.71% more than $ 24.4 billion recorded during 2020-21. In 2020-21, the growth was 18% over $ 20.7 billion achieved during 2019-20, said Ravi Uday Bhaskar, Director General of […]

Hyderabad: The pharmaceutical exports from India from April 2021 to March 2022 stood at $ 24.6 billion (about Rs 1.94 lakh crore. These exports were just 0.71% more than $ 24.4 billion recorded during 2020-21. In 2020-21, the growth was 18% over $ 20.7 billion achieved during 2019-20, said Ravi Uday Bhaskar, Director General of Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), an export promotion wing set up by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The target for the financial year 2022-23 is $ 27.4 (about Rs 2.16 lakh crore), which is about 10% over the last year.

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Drugs, formulations and biologics accounted for 73.3% of the total exports and was followed by bulk drugs and drug intermediates at 18%. Vaccines, Ayush and herbals and surgicals accounted for the remaining of the exports.

On the reasons for the small growth during 2021-22, Bhaskar said Indian pharmaceutical industry apart from facing delay in site inspections and new site approvals by the USFDA, also faced pricing pressures, frequent lockdown, global supply chain interruptions and a sluggish manufacturing sector. Further, a large number of countries were increasingly moving towards localisation.

India is now the 11th largest market and is expected to be ranked as 9th largest by 2025. Seven India based companies feature among the top 20 global generic companies as per turnover (in 2020).

India is one of the biggest suppliers of low-cost vaccines in the world. Indian medicines are preferred worldwide due to the low price and high quality. It is the largest exclusive generic exporter in the world. Pharma exports accounted for 5.9% of merchandise exports. During 2021-22, India has exported to over 200 destinations across the world. About 55% of exports are to highly regulated markets like North America and Europe and the USA is the leading exporting partner (29%) of India by country, the official said.

The Indian companies have bagged 33.4% of market authorisations granted by USFDA in 2021. About 65-70% of WHO’s vaccines requirements are sourced from India. India has the maximum number of US FDA-approved manufacturing sites outside the US and it holds about 18% of global manufacturing sites catering to the US markets.

He said the cluster approach of Telangana like developing Pharma City at Mucherla, will help the pharma industry with domestic as well as export markets.