New Delhi: Despite the government’s ambitious Atma Nirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) scheme which was launched nearly two years ago to reduce the country’s dependence in critical sectors such as pharmaceuticals, India’s pharma imports from its biggest supplier China and pharma imports, in general, have increased in the last financial year, showed the latest official data shared by the government in Parliament.
In the wake of global supply disruptions caused by the outbreak of the Covid-19 global pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the Atma Nirbhar Bharat scheme with an outlay of Rs 20 lakh crore. During the pandemic, one of the most important tasks for the government was to ensure the supply of life-saving drugs and medicines to the people as Indian pharmaceutical companies were heavily reliant on China for the supply of Key Starting Materials (KSMs), Drug Intermediates (DIs) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs).
The situation became critical as most of the suppliers were located in the Wuhan region of China where the first case of SarS-CoV-2 was discovered and the area was locked down by the Chinese authorities. In 2018-19, India imported pharmaceutical products worth $6.36 billion with China accounting for more than 41% of the supplies.
In the next fiscal, India imported pharmaceutical products worth $6.46 billion, an increase of over $100 million. During this period, pharma imports from China marginally declined from $2630.6 million in FY 2018-19 to $2562.8 million in FY 2019-20. And China’s share in India’s pharma imports also dipped below 40%.
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In May 2020, the government announced Atma Nirbhar Scheme and in July 2020 the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for the promotion of domestic manufacturing of critical pharma ingredients was rolled out. The total financial outlay of the first production linked scheme for the pharma sector has been pegged at Rs 6940 crore for a period of FY 2020-21 to FY 2029-30. The total financial outlay of the PLI scheme for the pharmaceutical sector is Rs 15,000 crore for FY 2020-21 to FY 2028-29.
The government also announced a scheme for the promotion of bulk drug parks for the creation of common infrastructure facilities in 3 bulk drug parks with a maximum limit of Rs 1,000 crore. The total financial outlay of the Scheme is Rs 3000 crore and the tenure of the Scheme is from FY 2020-21 to 2024-25. In March 2021, the government announced a new production linked incentive scheme for the pharmaceutical sector – PLI 2.0 with an outlay of Rs 15,000 crore for FY 2020-21- to FY 2028-29 to develop global pharma champions out of the country.
According to Anupriya Patel, the minister of state for commerce and industry, financial incentives are given for the manufacturing of 41 key starting materials, drug intermediaries and active pharmaceutical ingredients. However, the latest data shared by the minister in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday showed that despite these measures, India’s import of pharmaceutical products in general and pharma imports from China have gone up in FY 2020-21.
India’s pharma products import went up from $6,460 million in 2019-20 to $6,975 million in FY 2020-21, an increase of 8%. Similarly, India’s import of pharma products from China went up from $2562.8 million in FY 2019-20 to $2903.4 million in FY 2020-21, an increase of over 13%.
