India’s pharmaceutical exports are expected to grow over 11% and touch record $31 billion in FY25 on the back of multiple factors, especially a shortage of drugs in the key U.S. market, a top official of the exporters body under the Commerce Ministry said on Thursday.
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For the fiscal ended March 2024, pharma exports, a mainstay in the country’s global trade, rose 9.6% to $27.8 billion. The growth came amid numerous global challenges, Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India Director General Ravi Uday Bhaskar said.
More than 50% of the exports last fiscal were to highly regulated markets such as North America and Europe. “Pharmaceutical exports to the U.S. increased 15% to more than $8 billion, while the exports to the U.K. were 21% higher at $783 million demonstrating the robust growth of the Indian pharmaceutical industry even in challenging situations,” he told PharmaLytica expo and conference that got underway in Hyderabad.
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As long as India continued to manufacture quality drugs at affordable prices the industry will remain unmatched, he said. Geo-political tensions, economic slowdown and logistical challenges apart, Indian pharma industry faced heat last fiscal over quality issues.
Talking to The Hindu, Mr.Bhaskar said the shortage of generic prescription drugs in the U.S. is expected to increase in the backdrop of some units there shutting down. Likewise, the demand in shipments to Africa is expected to enhance as non-governmental organisations that had shifted their focus to Covid had reverted to supply of free drugs.
Pharma exports to Africa, which had declined 5% in FY23, ended 8% higher last fiscal. Barring CIS countries, pharma exports to all other markets were higher year on year in FY24. As a pointer to the road ahead, the exports in April 2024 rose more than 7%.