Latin America and Japan are the future markets for pharma exports: Pharmexcil

Jayarama Emani | The Dollar Business “India’s pharmaceutical exports will cross Rs 1 lakh crore by the end of the financial year 2014-15,” said Dr. P V Appaji, Director General, Pharmexcil. Speaking to The Dollar Business, Appaji said that exports for the current fiscal will register a growth by 8 to 10% in dollar terms and about 12 to 13 % in Rupee terms. Stating that the industry is likely to register a decent growth in exports for the next fiscal, Appaji said that India’s current exports to US stood at 30% which is likely to grow to 35% in the next 12 months. “Exports to Latin America also will increase from the current value of 7% as Indian exports are making their way into countries like Brazil and Argentina as some of the hurdles for formulations have been resolved in the recent past. Japan is also a country where Indian pharmaceutical exports can register a better growth,” Appaji added. Commenting on the balance of trade equation for the pharma industry, Appaji said UK, Germany, Russia and Nigeria are the top destinations for our exports after the US. For the last two decades, India has registered positive balance of trade. For the financial year 2014-15, the exports are expected to be US$ 16 billion and imports US $ 5 billion. Added to this, 90% of India’s critical medicine requirements are met by the pharma industry. On ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, Appaji said, “So far we were concentrating on trade in terms of export but now we want to concentrate more by making India as a hub for manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. Our aim is to attract international foreign direct investment (FDI) to utilize our facilities to manufacture, but there is a hurdle because FDI is not permitted in the Brownfield sector in automatic route which the government has not addressed in the budget too.” We are hoping the government will allow 100% FDI in to the 100% export oriented units (EoUs) and Brownfield Sector projects and encourage the domestic manufacturers too as part of the ‘Made in India’ initiative, he concluded.  

This article was published on March 07, 2015.