The Prime Minister’s office of Government of India has called for a review meeting to assess the status of imports of bulk drugs. i.e the active pharmaceutical ingredients, in a move to strengthen its Make in India initiative.
The initiative is to encourage the domestic manufacture of bulk drugs. At present, India is dependent on China for sourcing its API.
Senior officials from the department of commerce and pharmaceutical and industry bodies are likely to be present at the meeting on 5th November. The meeting is likely to discuss the recommendations by a committee headed by former health secretary VM Katoch, which proposed in September the establishment of mega parks for APIs, revival of public sector units to make select and critical drugs such as penicillin and paracetamol, and financial incentives to promote the local bulk drugs sector.
India imports about 85% of its bulk drugs from China, which is seen as a high-dependence threat and an opportunity to scale up domestic production. India shipped in APIs worth $3.9 billion in 2014-15, of which $3.3 billion was from China. In 2004-05, the total API imports were $800 million. The landed price of bulk drugs bought from China is 15-20% lower than the cost of production in India, which makes it viable for companies to import them.
"China is a dominant factor. We haven't developed our own APIs and are dependent on them. The threat is if China becomes too dominating, the downstream industry will suffer," said a commerce department official.
The official added that in line with the 'Make in India' programme, the PMO is likely to ask the departments concerned to gear up and work on the architecture and environment to domestically produce bulk drugs. Domestic manufacturing capability will also help avoid price and supply risks associated with the high level of dependence on a single source. A policy for the promotion of manufacturing of bulk drugs will be firmed up after the deliberations.
In the API front, India has strong R&D expertise in the therapeutic areas of oncology, cardiology, diabetes, and tropical diseases.
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