India to add 50 new pharma greenfield plants under PLI scheme: Pharma Secy

India is set to add 50 new greenfield pharma manufacturing plants in the next two years under the Production-linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for pharma and medical devices, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Addressing an Annual Pharma Summit organised by industry body Assocham, Arunish Chawla, secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), said that as the ‘Make in India’ initiative completes ten years, 50 plants have already been set up under the PLI schemes for the two sectors.

“The PLI schemes in the pharma and medtech sectors have been a success, with more than 50 brand-new greenfield pharma and medical device manufacturing plants already becoming operational, and 50 more in the pipeline,” he added.

Elaborating on the success of the PLI schemes, Chawla said that PLI plants have catalysed $10 billion worth of exports from India to countries with high regulatory standards in the last two years alone.

Stating that the notion of India being an importer of bulk drugs and hugely dependent on certain destinations is a myth, Chawla said that in the last year, India exported as much bulk drugs as it imported.

“The Indian pharma industry has achieved a trade balance in bulk drugs, with more than 50 per cent of drugs and pharmaceuticals produced in the country being exported in both volume and value last year,” he added.

He stated that the Indian meditech industry also exported more than the country imported in the surgical and consumable space.

“With this, pharma and medtech have now officially become the fourth-largest sector for merchandise exports, after the automobile and automotive sector, petrochemicals and petroleum products, and electronics,” Chawla said.

He added that India has also achieved double-digit growth in other sunrise sectors like imaging devices, body implants, and in vitro diagnostics (IVDs).