India Pushes for Continued Growth in the Pharma Sector

With India’s leading and prevailing growth in the pharmaceutical sector, the article is going to particularize the country’s evolution in the pharma industry and how the internationally compatible laws have conferred it as one of the most beneficial locations for pharma investment.

India’s pharmaceutical industry holds a constitutive position on the world stage. The country’s pharmaceutical industry is counted as the world’s 3rd largest in terms of volume and 14th largest by value. India has been adequately fulfilling over 50% of the global demand for vaccines, 40% for generic medicines in the USA, and 25% for all medications in the UK. Even in the most recent awful health crisis of Covid-19, India has continuously proven to be the world’s largest supplier of cost-effective generic medicines.

Over the past 2 decades, India’s pharmaceutical industry has performed exceptionally well and has attracted foreign investment of over INR878.14 billion from April 2000 to March 2022. And, with this persistent growth, the country’s pharmaceutical sector is estimated to grow 12% to 14% domestically and 8% to 14% through exports in the next few years. According to recent reports of Indian Economic 2021, the domestic market of Indian pharmaceuticals is expected to grow 3x in the next decade. The domestic pharmaceutical market of the country stood at US$ 42 billion in 2021 and is more likely to rise to US$ 65 billion by the year 2024. In addition, it is further estimated to prolong to rise to US$ 120-130 billion by 2030. 

Over the past few years, the country’s top pharmaceutical organizations have proceeded to invest densely in the process of research and development and signalling a progression of the pharmaceutical market of India from generic medicines to solitary medicines and biotechnology. In addition, leading pharmaceutical companies in India such as Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Biotic Healthcare, and Cipla, have axles towards operating speciality and complex generic drugs and medicines. The pharmaceutical sector of India has witnessed some extensive growth, investments, developments, and support from the government in recent years. Hence, the country is continuing to generate great opportunities for the pharmaceutical sector on the world level. 

The country is the largest vaccine producer worldwide, auditing for 60% of the total vaccines in 2021. The pharmaceutical sector of India has received aggregated FDI worth US$ 19.41 billion from April 2000-March 2022. Former this year, the government of India commenced the Pharma Bureau, which is a single-point intersection for adequate communication with domestic and foreign stakeholders to aid the serenity of doing business in the pharma sector. The market of medical devices in India stood at US$ 10.36 billion in FY20. This market is estimated to expand by rising to a CAGR of 37% from 2020 to 2025 to reach US$ 50 billion. 

The healthcare industry of India is the leading and fastest-growing sector in the world and is conventional to cross US$ 372 billion by 2022. The CRAMS (Contract Research and Manufacturing Services) industry is estimated to reach up to US$ 20 billion by 2024 and is expected to grow 12% at a CAGR. 

On November 2021, Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi launched the first Global Innovation Summit of the pharmaceuticals sector. The summit includes over 12 sessions and over 40 national and international speakers conversing on a variety of subjects consisting of funding for innovation, regulatory environment, innovation infrastructure, and industry academia.  And the ‘Pharma Vision 2020’ by the Department of Pharmaceuticals intends to make India a primary focus for end-to-end drug discovery.

Being one of the largest pharmaceutical industries in the world by volume, India's pharmaceutical industry endeavour positive growth direction in the coming years. Over the next few years, the medical expansion of India is expected to enhance by 9–12% displaying it among the top 10 nations worldwide. The competence of Indian pharmaceutical companies aligns their product portfolio towards enduring therapies for chronic diseases such as anti-diabetes, cardiovascular, anti-cancer, and anti-depressants, which are on high demand and will also play a vital role on domestic sales growth in future. Hence, since liberalization, India has played a dominant role in the pharmaceutical sector on the world’s stage and is continuing to provide low-cost alternatives to manufacturing supply-chain logistics for the global market.