During the last session of Parliament,
members expressed much concern over the country’s increasing dependence on
China for active pharmaceuticals ingredients (APIs). During the debate, the
government informed MPs that the National Security Advisor had warned it about
the matter. The issue has implications, not just for India’s pharmaceutical
exports, but also other key areas — especially in matters pertaining(related,सम्बंधित) to access to medicine. Y. K. Hamied, the chairman of the
generic manufacturing company, CIPLA is not off the mark, when he says, “if
China decides, one day, to stop exports to India, the pharma industry’s output
would be zero.”
In 1991, Chinese ingredients accounted
for only 0.3 per cent of the bulk drug imports, by 2012 their share had gone up
to 47.61 per cent. The latest figures show that this share stands at almost 66
per cent.
India has attached high priority to the
pharmaceutical sector since Independence. The adoption of the Patent Act, 1970
opened the doors for greater participation of Indian firms in the production of
pharmaceuticals. The pharmaceutical sector is a major player in the
manufacturing landscape of the country. The founding of Bengal Chemical and
Pharmaceutical Limited (BCPL) at the beginning of the last century marked the
industry’s inception(start,शुरुवात) and by the early 1990s, it had more than 6,000 units. After
that, however, the number of units declined and people lost jobs, but somehow
industry performance remained at a level that did not demand the policymakers’
attention.
In 2015, the Indian pharmaceutical
sector accounted for about 1.4 per cent of the global pharmaceutical industry
in value terms and about 10 per cent in terms of volume. Its share in global
generic exports is around 20 per cent. Its diverse portfolio is a major
strength of the Indian generic industry. With almost 60,000 generic brands
across 60 therapeutic areas, the sector has a gigantic(huge,विशाल)
requirement. India’s strength lies in formulation production, or processing
bulk drugs into finished products. Bulk drug production, the production of active
ingredients, has not received adequate(enough,पर्याप्त)
attention.
In a globalised economy, closing markets
or overlooking cost-effective ingredients is not a feasible(possible,संभावित) option. But there are policy choices which should be
leveraged at the earliest, because the overdependence on China for APIs
threatens India’s ascendancy (dominance,प्रभुत्व) in generic medicines. There are four major ways by which we can
overcome the reliance on China.
First, domestic production of APIs
should be encouraged. An inter-ministerial committee headed by secretary, department
of health research had recommended several measures for rejuvenating API
production in the country. It had advocated specified pharmaceutical zones. The
government should work on this recommendation and revive closed units of
enterprises like the Indian Drugs and Pharmaceutical Limited (IDPL). At a time,
when more jobs are needed, smart strategies to kickstart improvements in
operational efficiencies are extremely important. We should not forget that
enterprises like the IDPL were not established with the objective of making
profits; health security drove the decision-making process.
Second, despite several opportunities
and incentives, established Indian pharmaceutical firms have not stepped up
R&D measures to fulfill their needs for ingredients. Some policy measures
are now needed to press for amplifying(enhancing,बढ़ाना) the use of domestic content by this sector.
Third, diversification of sources of
imports should be seriously explored. In this effort, key industry partners
should be consulted and their concerns should be taken on board.
The fourth area that needs addressing is
data discrepancy(difference,भिन्नता).
The Research and Information Systems for Developing Countries used the chapter
on pharmaceuticals of the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and
Statistics (DGCIS) — as reported by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy —
to calculate India’s dependence on pharmaceutical imports from China. These
calculations showed that the imports from China in 2014-2015 did not exceed $
122 million, a mere 0.2 per cent of the pharmaceutical sector’s total imports.
One needs to add imports of chemicals, organic and inorganic, in this list of
pharmaceuticals. Once they are added, the volume of the pharmaceutical sector’s
imports from China goes up by a whopping 62 times from that reported by the
DGCIS.
courtesy:indian express
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