Last Updated on January 12, 2024 by The Health Master
Expressing concern over the fact that the excipients industry in India is completely dependent on imports, Ravi Uday Bhaskar, director general of Pharmexcil said that if corrective steps are not taken right now by the government, the sector may face a similar fate like bulk drugs or active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and Indian industry may become completely dependent on imports and may have to play to the tunes of the foreign countries.
The Pharmexcil DG drew similarities with the API and excipients sectors in India. During the early days in 1990s, India was reckoned as the leading bulk drug producer and Hyderabad was called as the leading bulk drug or API hub of the country with more than 30 per cent of bulk drugs manufactured form this city.
However, due to various factors and regulatory reasons, majority of pharma players shifted from bulk drug manufacturing to formulations and today India’s API production has gone to a lowest level compelling the pharma firms to depend on low cost supplying nations like China.
“This is high time we at both the government and industry level realize the future beforehand. I feel there is a need for all us to learn from our past bitter experiences and must take immediate corrective steps. India’s excipients production is very low and today our industry is highly depending on imports of excipients,” observed the Pharmexcil DG.
It is already known that India’s API sector or bulk drug sector is more than 80 per cent dependent on imports from China.
And today with China putting breaks to imports by suddenly hiking the prices of the APIs or bulk drugs and other factors like border issues and geopolitical issues leading to rifts in the relations between the two countries, it is high time India learns from the past experiences and policy makers must devise strategies and new policies to boost the domestic excipients industry.
For instance, the prices of certain bulk drugs or APIs like paracetamol, antibiotic meropenem, anti-diabetic metformin have been increased upto 139 per cent, 127 per cent and 124 per cent respectively.
And the Indian formulations industry is completely helpless and has no other option but to continue to depend on China and pay the price for the flaws of Indian policy makers, that led us to depend on others without encouraging domestic production to self suffice our industry.
In fact, though India is regarded as the world’s third-largest drug producer by volumes, it imports nearly 80 per cent of its APIs from China. In view of this, the Pharmexcil DG has raised the issue and urged the government and policy makers to take immediate corrective steps so that the Indian excipients sector does not face the similar fate of the APIs.
Pharmaceutical excipients are basically used as binders, color coating and preservatives of an active pharmaceutical ingredient. Ideally, excipients are inert and do not react or interact with the medicine it is coating or binding.
The excipients are also called as vehicles and diluents for drugs. As majority of these important substances being highly imported from other countries, Pharmexcil has flagged the issue and reduce the imports and advised to increase in the domestic production of the same, so that in future
Indian industry should not suffer at the hands of others in its competitive fight with other countries in the pharma sector.
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