India's Commerce Ministry Calls for Policy Measures to Boost Pharma Exports to China

A strategic paper by the Indian Commerce Ministry calls for critical policy interventions and special efforts to increase the presence of Indian pharma industry in China.

India's Commerce Ministry has called for critical policy interventions and special efforts to increase the presence of Indian pharma industry in China and reversing the trend in active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) sector, as part of boosting the overall pharma exports from the country and achieve a target of 15.8 billion dollar by 2013-14.

"Interestingly, CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of pharma exports to China over the last five years has been recorded at 6.44 per cent. This is extremely embarrassing for the Indian industry. It is noteworthy that at one point of time in the recent past India produced more than 70 per cent of its bulk drugs. Today, it produces only 30 to 40 per cent. Most of its bulk drugs come from China. Thus, a large part of Indian exports is formulation of Chinese bulk drug. This is an extremely disappointing and critical asp