Industrial Automation Magazine India

PLI scheme to reduce dependence on China for pharma raw material Infomerics Report

Published on : Thursday 07-07-2022

Healthy Growth in FDI and Digital Initiatives further fuelling growth of Domestic Pharma Industry.

Mumbai, July 06, 2022: The Indian Pharma industry is riding on the PLI scheme of the govt to reduce it's dependency for key raw materials like API from China. The production linked incentive scheme was first launched in mid-2020, when military tensions with China were at a high. The PLI program aims to incentivize companies across all sectors to boost domestic manufacturing by $520 billion by 2025.

For the pharma sector, the government has earmarked over $2 billion worth of incentives for both private Indian companies and foreign players to start producing 53 APIs that India relies heavily on China for. A total of 239 applications were received, out of which 49 applicants were selected for 32 products. The total committed investment of Rs 3685.38 crore and actual investment of Rs 774.88 crore took place by 49 approved applicants till December 2021 in all segments. 35 APIs began to be produced at 32 plants across India in March 2022.

The tenure of the scheme is from FY 21 to FY 29. Promotion of innovation for development of complex and high-tech products, including products of emerging therapies and in-vitro Diagnostic Devices have also been targeted under the scheme.

The government should focus on a conducive ecosystem supportive of greater inflow of foreign investments and benefit local pharma and medical device companies. These are some of the findings of a report on the Pharmaceutical Industry titled - Redefining Business and Innovation released by Infomerics Valuation and Rating Pvt Ltd, the well-known SEBI-registered and RBI-accredited financial services credit rating company.