China major supplier of APIs to Indian pharma companies

NEW DELHI: Indian pharmaceutical industry imports majority of active pharmaceutical ingredients ( APIs) and intermediates worth billions of dollars from China.

According to the official data, till February 2012 (2011-12), total imports of APIs and intermediates from various countries stood at $3.07 billion, of which imports from China stood at $1.65 billion.

Indian firms imported APIs and intermediates worth nearly $3 billion in 2010-11 with China alone accounting for $1.88 billion, the data showed.

During 2009-10, Indian firms imported APIs worth $2.4 billion while imports from China stood at $1.14 billion.

Indian firms import majority of their raw materials from China as they get benefit of cost by sourcing from the neighbouring country, Angel Broking Head of Research Sarabjeet Kaur said.

"It's not a threat to Indian pharmaceutical sector as Indian pharma sector is more of a formulations focused industry, while China is more of APIs," she added.

The pharmaceutical industry is valued at $22 billion and stands third largest in terms of volume and 13th in terms of value. The sector is growing at a rate of 14 per cent per annum.

The growth of the sector has been driven by high quality and competitively priced medicines for domestic and global markets covering both developing and highly regulated markets of the US and the European Union.