The government aims to grow the pharmaceutical industry by about four times to $200 billion by 2030, Arunish Chawla, secretary, department of pharmaceuticals, said on Friday.
The sector should be able to achieve the target through the help of industrial academia and production-linked incentives announced for industrial research and development, he said on the sidelines of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) summit.
“We are already achieving double-digit growth year on year. We need to sustain the momentum and accelerate further and also adapt to the structural changes that are coming in the industry and the medical technology sector the world over,” Chawla said.
And to rise to that challenge, we have initiated the production-led incentive scheme, but not just for formulations, but also bulk drugs, drug intermediates, and the meditech sector, which are the rising sectors of our economy,” he added added.
“And in these sectors, along with this, we are strengthening the industrial support schemes, including common facilities and assistance that we can provide to the industry, dovetailed with research and development, where both public and private resources can be brought together.
These, put together, will help us achieve the challenge, and we are working very closely with the industry to do that.”
The PLI scheme and the lure of the Indian market has attracted companies like GE Healthcare, which are planning to scale up manufacturing in the country for medical technology.
Under the PLI scheme for medical devices, a total of 26 projects have been approved, with a committed investment of ₹1,206 crore. Out of this an investment of ₹714 crore has been achieved.
Fourteen projects producing 37 products have been commissioned, and domestic manufacturing of high-end medical devices has started. These include linear accelerator, MRI scan, CT-scan, mammogram, C-Arm, MRI coils and high-end X-ray tubes.
Chawla said that India’s contribution to global manufacturing also is set to double by 2030.
“India has the potential to grow 3-4 times in value by achieving a shift from a 10% share of pharma and medtech in the manufacturing sector in 2020 to a 20% share in 2030,” he added.
India has the largest number of FDA- approved plants in the US and exports to 200 countries with value accounting to more than $50 billion. Further, two-thirds of global vaccines for World Health Organization requirements are met by India.
“Innovation is on the rise in India-medtech, assistive technology, and smart medicine are evolving but a streamlined innovation strategy is required,” he said.
“India for India makes sense. And China for the world used to be the biggest title. Today, I want to say China and India for the world, not only China. We need to balance. You don’t put all your eggs in one basket. India will need to make sure the infrastructure exists for these companies to grow. We will have much more manufacturing,” said Elie Chaillot, president and chief executive of Intercontinental GE HealthCare told Mint in September.
Source : mint