New Delhi, March 21 (IANS). India’s pharmaceutical industry has now established a strong global footprint, ranking third in the world in terms of production (volume) and 11th in terms of value, comprising more than 3,000 companies and more than 10,500 manufacturing units.
India’s domestic pharmaceutical market is currently worth $60 billion and is estimated to grow to $130 billion by 2030.
According to the Economic Survey 2025-26, the total turnover of this sector reached Rs 4.72 lakh crore in the financial year 2024-25. In the last 10 years, pharmaceutical exports have grown at an average rate of 7 percent annually.
India is the largest supplier of generic drugs in the world, accounting for about 20 percent of the global supply. About 60,000 generic medicines across 60 different medical categories are manufactured in the country.
Strong manufacturing capacity, rising exports, foreign investment and government schemes have together increased domestic production, reduced import dependence and strengthened India’s hold in the global market.
Also, availability of affordable medicines, innovation, quality control and strict regulations have improved the health services of the country and increased India’s credibility in the world.
The proposed and recently signed trade agreements with the European Union, United Kingdom and New Zealand will also further strengthen the sector. This will open new markets and increase investment and employment opportunities.
It is noteworthy that India has the largest number of manufacturing plants outside the US that have received approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), which shows global confidence in the quality and safety of Indian medicines.
There are about 500 active pharmaceutical raw material (API) manufacturing companies in the country, which account for about 8 percent of the global API industry.
India also leads the world in supply of vaccines like diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DPT), BCG and measles.
Indian companies supply about 60 percent of the vaccines to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), while India meets 40-70 percent of the global demand for DPT and BCG vaccines and 90 percent of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s measles vaccine demand.
This shows how strong India’s pharma exports are and how important they have become in the global health system.
India’s pharmaceutical exports are expected to reach $30.5 billion in the financial year 2024-25, which is almost 16 times more than $1.9 billion in 2000-01.
–IANS
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