Continuing its lead over China in pharmaceutical exports in 2015, India’s pharmaceutical exports surged to $12.54 billion from $11.66 billion in 2015 recording a growth of 7.55 percent. According to Ministry of Commerce & Industry, India moved ahead of China in all important markets such as US, European Union and Africa. However, China too increased its exports of pharma products from $6.59 billion to $6.94 billion with a growth of 5.3% during the same period.
India's export of pharma products to the US jumped by 23.4 percent to $4.74 billion last year, while China's pharma exports to the US increased by 15 per cent to $ 1.34 billion in the same period. Besides United States, India also managed to beat China in terms of growth in the European Union and Africa with $1.5 billion and $3.04 billion, respectively. China's exports to EU and Africa showed a declining trend.
India is a global hub of generic medicines. Recently, a joint study of industry body ASSOCHAM and TechSci research had stated that export of pharmaceutical products from India is likely to cross $14. billion mark this year and may reach about $20 bn by 2020. However, delay in regulatory approvals in US, Russia, Africa and others may cut down export growth to almost half - from a 15 per cent CAGR growth level clocked in 2010-2014 to eight per cent during 2015-2020.