Pharma Sector: Union Govt Approves Investments Of Rs 5,082 Crore Under PLI Scheme For APIs

With an objective to attain self-reliance and reduce import dependence in Key Starting Materials (KSMs) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in the country, the Union government had launched a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for promotion of their domestic manufacturing by setting up greenfield plants.

In total, 215 applications have been received for the 36 products spread across the four Target Segments. Nineteen applications with a committed investment of Rs 4,623 crore have already been approved.

The applications of 14 companies, which have committed minimum or more than the minimum proposed annual production capacities and fulfil the prescribed criteria, have been approved.

The setting up of these plants will lead to a total committed investment of Rs 459 crore and employment generation of about 3,715 by the companies.

The commercial production of these plants is projected to commence from 1 April 2023, the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers said in a statement.

With this approval, a total of 33 applications with committed investment of Rs 5,082 crore have been approved by the government under the PLI Scheme for APIs.

Setting up of these plants will make the country self-reliant to a large extent in respect of these bulk drugs.

In February 2021, the Modi government approved a Rs 15,000 crore Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme to promote domestic manufacturing of high value products in the pharmaceutical sector.

The PLI scheme for Pharmaceuticals will be implemented over a period of eight years - from financial year 2020-21 to 2028-29. The government will incentivise the producer firms by paying anywhere between five to ten per cent of the yearly incremental output based on the category of pharmaceutical product.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is the third largest in the world by volume. It has high market presence in several advanced economies such as the US and EU.

The industry is well known for production of affordable medicines, particularly in the generics space. However the country is significantly dependent on the import of basic raw materials, viz., bulk drugs that are used to produce medicines. In some specific bulk drugs, the import dependence is 80 to 100 per cent.