Pharma exports declined by 4% up to August on pricing pressure

Pharma exports from India registered a negative growth of 4 percent during the first five months of the current fiscal owing to increased regulatory issues coupled with pricing pressure in global markets, a Pharmexcil official said on Monday.

According to Udaya Bhaskar, the Director General of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), a Ministry of Commerce and Industry body, the pharma exports to other countries witnessed a decline of 7.9 percent during the April-July period while recovered to 4 percent in August leaving the overall growth at minus four percent till August this year.

"Till July, pharma exports registered minus 7.9 percent growth. Subsequently it recovered in August and stood at minus four percent. There was four percent growth in August. Pricing pressure is one of the factors (for decline in exports). To some extent import alerts (by US FDA on Indian plants), regulatory issues and currency fluctuation, are some of the factors contributed to downward growth," Udaya Bhaskar told PTI.

He, however, hoped that the overall exports will recover and come into positive zone for the full year as exports are expected to take an uptick from September.
"We expect the overall growth for the year would be in the positive. Implementation of GST also created initially some confusion among the manufacturers leading to stoppage of production by some companies. Now we are seeing some growth," he further said.

According to statistics, India exported USD 16.90 billion worth of pharma products during 2015-16 and the same was slightly declined in 2016-17 to USD 16.64 billion in 2016-17.

Pharma exports from India

India working to cut imports of active pharmaceutical ingredients

Hyderabad: With an aim to reduce dependence on import, Pharmexcil, the pharma export promoting body set up under the Ministry of Commerce, is working with Indian laboratories that have the capability to produce the active pharmaceutical ingredients that are being imported.

Speaking to reporters after its annual general meeting, Pharmexcil director general Ravi Uday Bhaskar and Chairman Madan Mohan Reddy said imports of APIs could be around $3.4 billion and if the key starting materials (KSMs) are also included, the import value could be about $4-5 billion.

“We are working to cut down the imports. This will cut the dependence on other nations as well as save the foreign exchange,” said Bhaskar.

For this purpose, it is selecting about 100 molecules to encourage local production. It is working with institutions like the IICT and others that have the technical capabilities to make such molecules. These will be commercialized and given to the industry. “We have identified certain molecules and the laboratories that can make them. Depending on the complexities, we expect the results in six to 18 months for some molecules, he said.

To encourage local development, drugs that will be made with import substitute molecules will not be under the Drug Price Control Order for five years. Pharmexcil will seek Government’s support in creating entry barriers for these molecules to ensure that domestic molecules are preferred to imported ones, the director general said.

“We need to create a level playing field for the local manufacturers. We need to design appropriate financial packages for this to be successful. All these have to be taken up in a cluster approach, “ the official said.

While imports are meeting the current requirement, the present effort to increase the domestic production is a step to ensure business continuity in case the supply from some countries is stopped or becomes uncertain due to various reasons, Bhaskar said.

“India was a net importer of APIs earlier. It took four decades or more to reach the current stage mainly on its strong chemistry skills. About 90 percent of the research is by the academia. India should now focus on innovation as well,” said Pharmexcil vice-chairman Dinesh Dua.