Despite multiple complaints raised over the quality of Indian medicines, there is no impact on the export values of pharmaceutical products, said a top pharma official in the Narendra Modi government.
“However, it has certainly made a dent in our image,” Udaya Bhaskar, director-general, the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), told News18 while replying to the impact of issues like Gambia and Uzbekistan on pharmaceutical exports.
Pharmexcil is an arm that functions under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Set up under the provisions of Foreign Trade Policy in 2004, it’s a body for promoting pharmaceutical exports from India.
According to Bhaskar, issues raised by Gambia, Uzbekistan, the United States, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and other countries have already been addressed and mechanisms have been set to ensure that no such incident occurs in future.
India’s pharma exports during the calendar year 2023 have touched almost $27 billion against the calendar year 2022 at $25.25 billion – recording a growth rate of almost 7%.
The growth has been driven by exports of generic drugs, off-patented finished dosage forms, registering a jump of 8.12 % which is twice the global market generics growth of 4%, according to the government data.
Exports of generic drug formulations and vaccines have recorded a turnover of $20.899 billion with a growth rate of 8.12%.
“In the current fiscal, as of December, India’s exports have recorded $20.4 billion with a growth of 8.2%. We are hopeful exports might better the figure in the last quarter and touch overall growth of around 10%,” Pharmexcil chief said.
Trends in Exports
The top countries of Indian pharma exports during the period of April-November in the financial year 2024 were the United States, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil. “Exports to the US, which accounts for 30.87% of our exports in pharma products, have expanded by 10.15%.”
The only region which registered negative growth in exports during the April to November period is the CIS region market. It includes Russia, Belarus, Ukraine
Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan among some other countries.
“Russia is the most important market for Indian pharma exports in this region with a share of almost 50%. However, Russia’s generic market shrunk by 12% in 2023 as the country has been increasing its local production as several companies pulled out of the country in late 2022 due to the war.”
Newer Markets May Pose a Challenge But Exporters Gearing Up
According to Bhaskar, markets in Africa are starting vaccine production besides some formulation units – an area where India has a stronghold.
“We are in a situation where reshoring of manufacturing by developed markets is being done at a faster alongside an initiation or increase of local production of some of the emerging markets is also taking place.”
However, Bhaskar explained, there is nothing to get upset about as Indian exporters are also gearing up to face these challenges by entering and developing complex generics and investing in bio-similars and biological drugs.
“India would also be developing more optional vaccines which has excellent potential. These would give the right fillip to India’s exports and help increase its market shares,” he said.
So far, India’s pharma exports have already touched over 200 markets across the globe. Though covered, some of the markets in the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region would be done more intensively to increase the market share.
“Though they cannot be termed as new, we shall try to increase the depth of coverage by our promotional activities.”
Bhaskar also appreciated the decision to approve the development of 98 biosimilars by the Indian drug regulatory agency claiming that it is the highest in the region and “our companies are focusing on biosimilars and also in the area of developing fermentation technology”.
China Versus India in Pharma Export Market
This has been a traditional competition and nothing new to anticipate any special impacts, Bhaskar said.
Both countries are production hubs for a wide range of pharma products. “While India holds an edge in developing finished dosage formulations of higher efficiency, China has some edge in its bulk drug production due to its vast capacities.”
Bhaskar hopes to see India achieve complete self-sufficiency in pharmaceutical production by manufacturing all essential building blocks in-house.
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