Eighty percent of the bulk drugs are imported from China! The rise in the price of domestic APIs has put Indian pharmaceutical companies in trouble.

Medical Network August 8th China's environmental supervision action has brought impact to the Indian pharmaceutical industry. It is reported that in the past four months, the price of some APIs in the Indian market has risen by about 40%. Due to the sharp rise in production costs, Indian pharmaceutical companies In particular, some small and medium-sized enterprises are struggling to fulfill their contractual obligations.

According to industry insiders, the price of APIs in India will rise further on the basis of the current sharp increase. In the past few months, the prices of paracetamol, propylene glycol, azithromycin, ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin have increased by 45%, 30 %, 36%, 28% and 31%, other raw materials with rising prices are rabeprazole, esomeprazole magnesium, pantoprazole sodium, methylcobalamin, losartan potassium, citric acid Nafi, montelukast, telmisartan, cefixime, cefpodoxime and cefuroxime axetil.

Since the beginning of this year, domestic environmental pollution remediation actions have affected the production of APIs to a certain extent, and the export prices of APIs have risen sharply. To this end, Indian pharmaceutical companies that rely heavily on APIs imported from China, especially small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies, have accused the government of not taking precautions. Take relevant measures and issue favorable policies.

Recently, a study commissioned by the Indian Ministry of Commerce and the Indian Embassy in Beijing showed that India imports about 80% of APIs from China by usage. The research report points out that the cost competition between India and China is very fierce. Only 3% (mainly in terms of labor costs), the rest can compete with the Indian market. Although materials, depreciation and indirect personnel costs are roughly the same as in India, raw materials imported from China are still proliferating.

The reasons for India's surge in imports of APIs from China include: Chinese companies have huge government-built capacity, and are currently managed by private companies, with strong support from banks in terms of loans and interest rates. They are polluting compared to Indian companies. standard And have autonomy in wastewater treatment.

Another major problem is that India's import approval policy for Chinese APIs is relatively loose, resulting in cost differences, and producers will prefer lower-cost intermediates.

Bihar, India drug And SanjivRai, president of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (BDPMA), said that in the past three to four months, many API prices have risen by 30% to 40%. In terms of government contract supply, manufacturers are facing serious cost problems, especially for producers. Is small and medium enterprise This will be a disastrous year. And the Indian government has no action or plans to solve this problem, just focus on large manufacturers.

Recently, the Indian Ministry of Medicine has taken some new measures to promote the development of the country's API industry: a central government financial assistance program with a budget allocation of up to Rs 20 crore, a public facilities center in the API industry; a high level The working group developed a roadmap for the API industry to study global production practices. But the latest data shows that these measures are still on paper and no real progress has been made.

Although production has not been seriously affected, many small and medium-sized Indian producers are concerned about the shortage of raw materials and the resulting increase in production costs. Some companies are looking for alternative channels, but this will be a daunting task because of some intermediates. No longer produced in Europe or the United States, only from China purchase.