For bulk drugs there has been a volume growth but value has declined. “This is due to the drop in prices of API and intermediates by China,” said another expert.
A weak vaccine demand has also been seen, logging a de-growth of 9% with Covid pandemic gone. Ayush and herbal products saw an 13% growth with more Indian companies qualifying from good manufacturing practices, he said.
According to the data, exports to the US climbed substantially. “North America has already done $6.2 billion. At this rate, it will end up doing $10 billion by March this year,” he said. He also said it’s a hefty and significant growth in spite of back orders and drug shortages. “If these issues were not there, it would have grown by 25% instead of 17% logged now.
The data suggests that growth in Europe has been stagnant. “Primarily due to the Netherlands and Belgium….While exports in the UK have grown by 22%, Germany has seen a growth of 6% over last year in spite of recession,” the pharma executive said.He said a significant growth has been seen both in the US and Europe. “From $5.5 billion last year, Europe has already logged $3.2 billion. These two major markets growing significantly is a potential Europe business from the current level of $5.5 billion last year this year from April to October’ 2024.
As far as the Africa market is concerned, it saw exports worth $4 billion last year. Although it has degrown by 3%, experts say with political stability coming in, they expect a level playing field again and going forward it may cross $10 billion.
Experts say Russia could be a gamechanger. “There are significant shortages in Russia due to the war. It has a potential to grow by 15 % as nobody is willing to take consignments to Russia. Russia holds a huge potential,” he said.
