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Bucking recessionary trends, pharmaceutical exports registered highest-ever growth in the third quarter ended December 31, 2019.
“This is a very good trend given the current scenario. In the third quarter, the growth in exports was at 14.64 per cent compared to the year ago period making it highest ever growth,’’ Uday Bhaskar, Director - General Pharmaceutical Exports Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) told BusinessLine on Wednesday.
In monetary terms, exports stood at $5,338.26 million in the December 2019 as against $4,657 million in the same quarter last year.
The first and second quarters of the current financial year growth was at 11.29 per cent and 8.69 per cent respectively.
The total exports for the nine months grew 11.40 per cent at $15,547 million ($13,943 million).
“Generally, January will see higher traction in pharma exports. We expect the total growth for the full year could be in the range of 13-14 per cent. Its almost likely that total exports touch $22 billion mark,’’ the Pharmaexcil chief said.
Drivers
Indian pharma exports stood at $19.14 billion in 2018-19 comprising bulk drugs, finished dosage formulations, Ayush, herbs and surgicals. Including the domestic share, pharma industry touched $40 billion.
A combination factors are behind the growth in exports. “There have not been many adverse developments for the industry in India from a global perspective this year and things are in fact turning more positive. There is growth in most key markets except for few concerns in regions like Africa,’’ he said.
Exports to the US, China, Japan and Iran are going up by over 30 per cent, as shown by data from the first quarter of the year itself.
The third quarter numbers of a few pharma companies have also shown a healthy trend of growth in the US, Europe, emerging markets and rest of the world. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, for instance, reported highest ever quarterly revenues in the third quarter this year.
There have also been efforts by Indian pharma industry to penetrate China and Japan markets in a big way and reduce dependency on Active pharma Ingredients (APIs) and intermediates imports from China. The industry, Government of India and Pharmexcil have been working together in this regard.
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