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India’s MedTech, pharma become fourth-largest export sector 

In a major milestone the exports of India’s pharmaceutical and MedTech sectors became the fourth largest sector in the country last fiscal; supplying to the world. Department of Pharmaceuticals, Secretary Arunish Chawla while sharing the milestone added that he expects this growth momentum to continue in the ongoing fiscal despite a slowdown in the global economy.

Chawla, while talking at the CII Pharma and Life Sciences summit said that the efforts of the government to support the industry for drug development in the country are bearing fruits and as many as 16 blockbuster molecules targeted for a wide range of therapeutic areas, including cancer, diabetes, HIV and tuberculosis, are in the pipeline to be produced in India.

These 16 drugs are part of a larger list of 25 molecules which are going off-patent in the next few years, giving a straight opportunity to the Indian pharma sector.

“We have been analysing the export trends in the recent data. Even though there is a general slowdown in exports globally, the good news is that the Indian pharmaceuticals, biotech, and bulk drug exports have grown double-digit over the last year,” he said in response to a query on export prospects of the pharma industry amid a global slowdown.

Chawla also elucidated that, “In the first four months of this year, these exports have now become the fourth largest merchandise export item for the Indian economy. That’s a huge achievement, and it’s an important milestone that has been crossed.”

“We expect robust performance from both pharma and the MedTech industry. In the last year, in the consumables and surgical space we became an export-oriented industry. In other segments as well, like imaging devices, body implants, in-vitro diagnostics, we are a rising power, and these exports are also showing good growth this year,” he added.

Chawla while adding that the sector has huge growing potential to become a reliable pharmacy of the world, added, “We are confident that when the data comes finally for the current financial year, you will see impressive results for yourself.”

To build this, the government is cognizant of the fact that it needs to support the industry and added that “We’ve done both studies and applied research to identify blockbuster molecules and blockbuster drugs in the traditional pharma space and in the new rising biotech and biosimilar space.”

“Patent cliff studies recently identified 26 blockbuster molecules, of these 16 are in the pipeline. They’re going to be produced in India. They are in various stages of approvals and manufacturing licences,” he added.

However, he refused to share the names of the companies developing these 16 molecules. But, Chalwa added, “These are mostly Indian companies, and they are taking help from the PLI scheme, the incentives to develop, research, take clinical trials and get the necessary approvals for these blockbuster molecules.”

These molecules are both small and large molecules aimed at most therapeutic segments including, cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis, HIV and anticoagulants, among others, he added.

He also said that the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has already granted approvals to some of the molecules, which will help the industry capture the space well within time.

He added, “Going further, we would also be working on their value chains upstream the way we have focused on bulk drugs as upstream value chains of chemical entities.”

Chawla shared that the government is also now focusing on the upstreams of biological entities, which particularly includes basic molecules like amino acids, nucleotides and vaccine raw materials.

“You will see a lot of work taking place in this direction going forward. We are also working on facilitating the cell and gene therapies and healthcare ecosystems that will come up going forward,” Chawla said. CNBCTV18

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