Deadline for proposals extended for India's PLI scheme for bulk drugs

The Indian government has extended the application date till March-end for the PLI (production linked incentive) scheme for bulk drugs. The government said that after two rounds of inviting applications, a total 49 projects have been approved for 33 critical APIs with a committed investment of  $483 million.

India's department of pharmaceuticals is implementing three different schemes related to the PLI to increase the domestic manufacturing of bulk drugs, medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

The PLI scheme for bulk drugs has an initial outlay of $910 million, while the PLI scheme for medical devices has an outlay of $448 million. Including the PLI scheme for pharmaceuticals, with an outlay of $1.96 billion, the three schemes are aimed at increasing domestic manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), drug intermediates and key starting materials, as well as creating global champions in the field of pharma.

Production volume commitments

After two rounds of inviting applications, the industry has responded well, said a government official. Against a notified quantity of about 44,000 MT of annual production capacity of certain APIs, the industry has committed production capacity of 83,270 MT.