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As part of a long term strategy, the Indian pharmaceuticals industry needs to step up exports to North East Asian (NEA) markets in view of huge market potential, according to R Uday Bhaskar, Director General, Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil), an arm of the Union Ministry of Commerce.
``Apart from sustaining and augmenting the present hold on the US and African markets, we also need to expand the reach of our pharma exports to East Asia. China and Japan alone present huge opportunities with a total market size of $155 billion and $108 billion respectively,'' Bhaskar said.
The size of the generics segment, in which India has strong strengths, has been estimated at $98.5 billion and $5.4 billion in China and Japan respectively, he added.
``The NEA generic market, which has been valued at over $100 billion (China, Japan and South Korea) present exponential growth opportunities for pharmaceutical companies’ from India as strengths in finished dosage formulations and contract manufacturing can contribute largely to the economic viability and also help policies for providing affordable generic drugs in NEA region,'' the Pharmexcil official said.
Boosting exports to China is also vital for the economy as there is a huge gap between Indian pharma exports to China and imports from it. For the financial year ended March 2021 imports from China were at $2,914 million, while exports to China from India were only at $383 million.
Pharmexcil will also be organising an India - North East Asia Pharma Business Meet during December 17-21, 2021 which will have a conference on regulatory aspects and pharma business opportunities and virtual B2B meeting in each country of the region.
Indian pharmaceutical exports set a record in the year 2020-21 with a growth rate of 18 per cent and reached $24.44 billion, thanks to the push given by the Covid19 pandemic.
This was the highest rate of growth in pharma exports for the last eight years, as per the estimates of the Department of Commerce, Government of India.
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