Local manufacture of 35 APIs underway, as India seeks self-reliance

India is well on its way to becoming a global hub for pharmaceuticals. Around 35 active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), which were previously imported into India, are now being manufactured across the country. Applied research for investigational new drugs has also quadrupled in India, reports The Pharma Letter’s India correspondent.

In India, the 35 critical APIs are 90% dependent on imports. As of now, however, these APIs are being manufactured in India under the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme. In the first phase of India's PLI scheme for the pharmaceutical sector, 32 new drug manufacturing plants have been set up across the country to produce critical APIs.

Though half of the critical APIs are imported, most of them come from China. Economies of scale and support from the Chinese government in the form of financial incentives, infrastructure and regulatory policies had given the Chinese API industry a competitive advantage.