The Indian government has announced plans to establish 50 new greenfield pharmaceutical and medical device plants under the Production-linked Incentive (PLI) scheme within the next two years. This initiative follows the successful implementation of the 'Make in India' programme, which has already seen the launch of 50 operational plants, significantly boosting exports and achieving a trade balance in bulk drugs.

At the Annual Pharma Summit organised by industry body Assocham, Arunish Chawla, Secretary of the Department of Pharmaceuticals, stated that these new greenfield plants are expected to be completed in the next two years. “The PLI schemes in the pharma and meditech sectors have been a resounding success, with 50 brand new plants already operational and another 50 in the pipeline,” he confirmed.

Chawla highlighted the impressive outcomes of the PLI schemes, noting that in the past two years alone, they have catalysed exports worth $10 billion from India to highly regulated markets around the world. He dismissed the notion that India is overly reliant on imports of bulk drugs, stating that in the last fiscal year, the country's exports of bulk drugs equalled its imports.

Furthermore, Chawla pointed out that the perception of India as a major importer of medical devices is misleading. In the previous year, the Indian meditech industry exported more medical devices in the surgical and consumables sector than it imported. He also noted significant growth in emerging sectors such as imaging devices, body implants, and in vitro diagnostics, with exports in these categories also experiencing double-digit growth.

In the first five months of this fiscal year, the pharma and meditech sectors have become the fourth largest manufacturing export sector in India, following automotive, petrochemicals, and electronics. Chawla remarked that the value-added contribution of these sectors is double that of the average across other manufacturing industries.

On the subject of innovation and commercialisation, Chawla stressed the importance of collaboration among industry, academia, and policymakers. He mentioned that the government is rolling out a 'research-linked incentive' scheme to support industrial projects with high commercial potential and plans to back startups within the sector. He assured that ongoing reforms, including the Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma MedTech Sector (PRIP) scheme, will further energise this ecosystem.

(ET)