Indian pharma sector to grow to $65 billion industry by 2024 : Gowda

Indian pharma sector can grow to $ 65 billion industry by 2024 as the government recently launched schemes for development of seven mega parks—three bulk drug parks and four medical devices parks across the country, Union Minister for Chemical, Fertilizer and Pharma, D V Sadananda Gowda said.

"New manufacturers will be eligible for Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme under which they will be eligible for financial incentives on basis of their sales for first 5-6 years," Gowda said while addressing the virtual Latin America & Caribbean session on ‘Reimagining Distances’, during LEADS 2020, organised by FICCI.

Gowda said that India is the only country with the largest number of US-FDA compliant Pharma plants (more than 262 including APIs) outside of USA with exports $ 20 billion worth of pharma products to various countries including high standards complying countries like the US and Europe.

The Minister further emphasised that this is a very- very good time to invest, and set up a manufacturing base in India in the pharma sector. "One can enter the India market through Joint Ventures also. The advantage is that you can get access to big markets like the domestic Indian market, US, Japan, EU and South East Asia through India as far as pharma sector is concerned. Anybody can contact my office if they are interested in the Indian pharma sector, we will provide all possible facilitation and hand-holding," he stressed.

Gowda also said that the market size of Chemicals & Petrochemicals sector in India is around $ 165 billion. The size is expected to grow up to $ 300 billion by 2025. This presents a huge opportunity in the Chemical sector India. For example, to meet the growing demand India will need 5 crackers by 2025 and an additional 14 by 2040. These crackers alone will require a cumulative investment of $65 billion. To attract foreign participation, he said, Government of India is revisiting policies for chemical and petrochemical sector.

"We are thinking to extend financial incentive based on sales similar to what is being extended in our pharmaceutical sector. We are also tweaking our policies to strengthen our chemical industrial cluster which we call as PCPIRs and plastic parks," Gowda said.

"I am told that Latin American and Caribbean countries are also net importers of chemical fertilisers. Instead of competing in the market as buyers, we should be cooperating for making supply chains more efficient so that adequate quantity can be sourced at competitive prices," he added