Pharma exports rise around 10% to $27.9 billion, US biggest importer

The country's drugs and pharmaceuticals exports increased 9.67 per cent year-on-year to $27.9 billion in 2023-24, even as the total exports dipped by 3 per cent in the last fiscal.

According to the commerce ministry data, pharma exports in March grew by 12.73 per cent to $2.8 billion.

In 2022-23, the exports stood at $25.4 billion.

The top five export markets, for the sector during the last fiscal, are the US, the UK, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil.

The US accounts for over 31 per cent of India's total pharma exports, followed by the UK and Netherlands (about 3 per cent each).

In 2023-24, the outbound shipments also entered new geographies like Montenegro, South Sudan, Chad, Comoros, Brunei, Latvia, Ireland, Chad, Sweden, Haiti and Ethiopia.

An industry expert said that increasing market opportunities and healthy demand in countries like the US are helping exports to record healthy growth rates month after month.

Experts have said that India's pharmaceutical business may exceed $130 billion by 2030, supported by expanding market opportunities and heightened demand in the overseas markets. The business stood at over $50 billion for the 2022-23.

On average, India exports pharma products worth $2-3 billion every month.

India's pharmaceutical industry is the third largest by volume and the 13th largest by value in the world, producing more than 60,000 generic drugs across 60 therapeutic categories.

The government has rolled out two production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes to promote domestic manufacturing of key pharmaceutical ingredients and generic medicines.