India urges China to stabilise price of APIs linked to Covid-19

India has urged China to stabilise the prices of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) that are used for making Covid-19-related medicines and allow flights of cargo carriers without disruption, people aware of the development told ET.

Indian pharmaceutical companies source almost 70% of their requirement of Covid-19-related APIs from China. Demand for Covid-19-related medicines and APIs has surged in the country amid the devastating second Covid-19 wave of infections.

India’s request, made by the government and pharmacy associations, follows the recent vault in prices of ingredients sourced from China for making medicines such as paracetamol, ivermectin and some antibiotics, the people cited earlier said. For instance, the prices of raw materials used for making ivermectin—an antiparasitic drug which has shown to help reduce mortality in Covid-19 patients--had increased by as much as 300% recently.


On Friday, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Beijing is working to keep the supply chain stable and that “no side should destabilise the (global) supply chain”.