Corona Impact: Pharma Sector Gets Rs 10,000 Crore Package

The government has started preparations to increase manufacturing in the country due to the constraints of raw materials imported from China for medicines following the outbreak of coronavirus. A package worth about Rs 10,000 crore has been announced for the pharma sector. The Modi government’s move has been welcomed by the industry.

What is the government’s announcement:

The government has said that three bulk drug parks will be set up in the country with an investment of about Rs 3,000 crore in the next five years. In addition, the government will implement the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme with an amount of about Rs 6,940 crore in the next eight years to promote drug intermediate, active pharma ingredients (API) manufacturing of drugs in the country itself. The scheme was approved by the Union Cabinet on Saturday.

What will be the impact of:

This will reduce China’s dependence on the Indian pharmaceutical industry in manufacturing medicines. It is noteworthy that about three-fourths of the raw material required for the production of medicines in the country are imported from China. But in recent months, the corona outbreak in China led to the closure of the factory and led to the swell of the Indian pharmaceutical industry.

It was said that if the corona crisis had been further drawn up in China for a few months, many countries in the world, including India, would have been heavily in trouble with drugs. In view of this, the government has now taken steps towards self-sufficiency in raw materials.

India dominates the world’s generic drug market and has a share of about 20 percent. Every third tablet of a drug sold in the US is made in India.

What the industry said:

The government’s move has been welcomed by the industry. “India’s pharma industry is the world’s leader in generic medicines and is meeting a large number of global needs,” said S Sridhar, chairman of the pharmaceutical chamber FICCI’s Pharmaceuticals Committee and MD, pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Many developed countries, including the US, the European Union, Japan, are also known for their safety and quality. The government’s announcement is welcome and the pharmaceutical companies fully support it,” he said.

Welcoming the move, the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), an organization of 24 pharmaceutical companies, said it is a major step towards strengthening the healthcare ecosystem in the country.