The pharmaceutical sector has an unparalleled role in India’s journey to becoming a more robust and bigger economy. The only thing standing in its way is the high dependence on China for raw materials.
India — a prominent maker of pharma products — relies heavily on China for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), the material that causes the desired effect of the medicine. It also has an uncomfortably high dependence on China for key starting materials (KSMs), which are the raw materials to make APIs.
New Delhi-based Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) estimates the dependence on Chinese imports for APIs for essential medicines as 80-100%. It is 100% for fermentation-based APIs such as penicillin and erythromycin. A government communique released in July 2020 said the imports from China have been growing and now stand at 68% of the country’s pharma imports. Over the last decade or so, this reliance has always been consistent, at 60-100%, industry figures reveal.
“We have a significant reliance on China for imports of key starting materials (KSMs, can be a raw material, intermediate or an API),” says Shekhar Bhirud, CEO, Akums Lifesciences Ltd. “Over 75% of our total KSM requirements are directly or indirectly sourced from there.”
This shows an unhealthy trend for a country with 1.4 billion people that wants to be self-reliant and a manufacturing powerhouse. To be clear, India is the third-largest pharmaceutical industry in the world by volume and the 14th largest pharma industry by value. The segment is growing and has shown great potential with the pharmaceutical industry in India currently valued at $50 billion. The segment is expected to reach $65 billion by 2024 and $120 billion by 2030, says Invest India.
Read More at https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/trade/exports/insights/why-the-health-of-indias-50-billion-pharma-industry-depends-on-china/articleshow/94694846.cms
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