Sadananda Gowda, Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers :

• It gives me immense pleasure to release the guidelines of four schemes for development of Bulk Drug & medical device parks across the country.

• The objective is to make India self reliant in production of 53 critical APIs or Key Starting Materials (KSMs), and in production of medical devices, for which India is crucially dependent upon imports.

• At present, India is significantly dependent on imports of basic raw materials, APIs or BulkDrugs. Some of them are very critical as they are used in production of essential medicines. Bulk Drugs imports accounted for 63% of total pharma imports worth Rs 40,000 cr in FY 2019-20.

• Corona crisis exposed weakness in global supply chains and posed threat to the health security of the country.

• While proactive steps by @Pharmadept and NPPA ensured steady supply of medicines, and prevented any shortage even during lockdown, it was felt that domestic capabilities in production of APIs&medical devices have to be ramped up in order to eliminate any risks to health security.

• The details of the schemes have been drawn up meticulously after having in depth consultations with stakeholders including industries and State Governments. The selection of their location will be based on objective criteria, and in spirit of competitive federalism.

• Supported by both Central and State Governments, these parks will be based on plug and play model with prior regulatory approvals, state of art infrastructure, excellent connectivity, affordable land, competitive utility charges, and strong R & D ecosystem and so on.

• This will significantly reduce time and investment cost for setting up new manufacturing units. In addition, new units will be eligible for Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme of Government of India.

• Govt understands that due to various contributing factors, significant manufacturing disability exist in these sectors vis-à-vis competing economies, which needs to be quickly addressed by incentivizing manufacturing and by developing an eco-system of competitive manufacturing.

• I am sure that these schemes will elicit good response from interested companies. These parks will be able to attract significant investment as well as latest technology.

• Once operational, in about two to three years, these parks will generate thousands of direct and indirect jobs, reduce import dependency and, make India as a global pharmaceutical hub.

The idea is also to cement India’s position as global drug supplier. As you are aware, in spite of various odds, India supplied critical medicines such as hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol to number of countries on their requests.

• India’s standing as a trusted source of medicines has grown further during this pandemic. This is the right time to seize the opportunity created due to enhanced goodwill.

• Currently valued at around 40 bn $, pharma sector can reach 100bn $ by 2024 given right support, and thus help achieve PM’s goal of making India a US$ 5trillion economy by 2025. I am of a firm belief that these schemes will prove to be a turning point for the pharma industry.