India needs quantum jump into manufacturing high-value pharma products: Economists

New Delhi, June 23 (IANS) India, which is one of the world’s largest suppliers of generic medicines and a major provider of vaccines and essential drugs, needs to make a quantum jump into manufacturing high-value pharmaceuticals and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), and there has to be strong Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes to achieve this, economists said on Tuesday.

Commenting on the NITI Aayog report on pharmaceutical trade that came out on Tuesday, economist Ved Jain told IANS that the time is ripe to make a jump into exporting high-value pharmaceutical products.

“We should invest in research innovation on basic drugs and facilities and for that, and I believe there has to be a strong PLI scheme for valued products, like high basic drugs and API products,” he mentioned.

According to the NITI Aayog report, India’s comparative advantage remains concentrated in formulations, particularly retail medicaments and generic drugs, where it remains highly competitive even in regulated markets such as the United States and Europe.

Jain said that we need to further remove regulatory barriers, ramp up production and, at the same time, increase the production of high-value pharmaceutical products which can be exported.

Various free trade agreements (FTAs) India has signed would definitely help in this direction once certain regulatory restrictions are addressed, he noted.

The PLI Scheme for pharmaceuticals supports the manufacturing of high-value products like biopharmaceuticals, complex generics, patented/off-patent drugs, orphan, and autoimmune drugs. It generated a total sale of Rs 3,08,408.60 crore, including Rs 1,98,509.49 crore in exports, since inception till September 2025.

Further, investment worth Rs 40,294 crore has also been made under the scheme till September 2025. The amount significantly exceeded the targeted investment of Rs 17,275 crore. The PLI scheme for the promotion of domestic manufacturing also helped reduce the import dependence for bulk drugs.

Meanwhile, the global pharmaceutical landscape has increasingly shifted towards high-value segments such as biologics, vaccines, immunologicals, and advanced therapeutics, where India’s export presence remains limited.

–IANS

na/