Spurious cough syrup incidents dent India’s image as pharmacy of world: Pharmexcil DG

Hyderabad: On a day Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya reiterated the Indian government’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy on spurious medicines by asking 18 companies to shut shop, Pharmexcil director general R Uday Bhaskar said though exports have not been impacted, the issue has dented India’s image as the pharmacy of the world.

“WHO and regulators of different countries are talking about it and issuing public alerts. Whenever we have interactions with regulators the first point they want to discuss is on these issues only,” Bhaskar said.

This was though cough syrups accounted for just $15 million of India’s total pharma exports of $25.4 billion in 2022-23 and 52 per cent of India’s pharma exports go to stringently regulated markets like Europe, where exports recorded 15.5 per cent growth for the first time, and US.

On India falling short of the $27 billion target, Bhaskar said though exports grew only 3.25 per cent in FY23 to $25.4 billion, Pharmexcil was gunning for $28 billion exports in 2023-24 as the US market, which has 31 per cent share of exports, has stablised, which is a positive sign.

Despite global headwinds that led to negative growth in key markets such as Africa (-5 per cent) and CIS (-8 per cent) Indian pharma crossed the $25 billion mark for the first time and grew 10.5 per cent in April 2023 alone, an optimistic Bhaskar said while addressing mediapersons on the ninth edition of Pharmexcil’s flagship International Pharma Exhibition to be held in Hyderabad from July 5 to 7. He said IPHEX 2023 is a special edition being organised on the occasion of India’s G20 presidency and will include a G20 focussed CEOs roundtable of delegates from over 120 countries.