Gowda invites LatAm, Caribbean countries to invest in India’s pharma sector

DV Sadananda Gowda, Ministers, Chemicals and Fertilisers invited Latin American and Caribbean countries to invest in the Indian pharma sector.

Addressing a video conference ”FICCI LEADS 2020”, the minister highlighted that India is one of the largest manufacturers and exporter of generic medicines across the world.

India is the only country with the largest number of US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) compliant pharma plants (more than 262 including APIs) outside of USA and exports USD 20 billion worth of pharma products to various countries, including high standards complying countries like the US and Europe, he added.

“We are confident that the Indian pharma sector can grow to $65 billion industry by 2024,” Gowda said.

The government has recently launched schemes for development of seven mega parks — three bulk drug parks and four medical devices parks across India, he informed.

New manufacturers will be eligible for Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme under which they will be eligible for financial incentives on basis of their sales for the first five to six years.

“This is a very very good time to invest and set up a manufacturing base in India in the pharma sector. One can enter the India market through joint ventures also. The advantage is that you can get access to big markets like domestic Indian market, US, Japan, EU and South East Asia through India as far as pharma sector is concerned,” Gowda said.

He said there is a need to convert common interest between Indian and Latin American/Caribbean countries into a successful model of cooperation.

“We have cooperated on lots of global issues with countries like Brazil, Jamaica and Argentina on various multilateral or global platforms such as the UN or G-20. There is a need to extend this cooperation at the regional and bilateral level,” he said.