And finally, in the spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat (‘self-reliant India’), the catchphrase popularised by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and referring largely to the concept of improving and strengthening India’s role in the global economy, the government has proposed a set of schemes and incentives to encourage the Indian pharma industry to become much more self-sufficient. The overall aim of these is to reduce the supply chain’s dependency on other countries such as China, particularly in the production of APIs.
According to Statista, China accounted for 68% of India’s API imports in 2019. And at present, Indian manufacturers rely heavily on supply of key starting materials from outside the country, with some reports suggesting this dependency reaches levels of up to 80%.
The fragility of this state of dependence was exposed by the significant disruptions to API supply caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the first quarter of 2020. As China went into lockdown, India restricted exports of several APIs including antibiotics, vitamins and hormones with immediate effect to ensure no shortages of drugs.
This episode has led to India deciding on a fundamental rethink of its pharmaceutical supply chains.