Pharma export registered a 0.13% growth recorded in FY-22

The exports of the pharmaceutical industry for the fiscal year 2021-22 have registered only a meager growth of 0.13 percent compared to the previous financial year. As a result, it has missed the rather ambitious target set by the government of India at the beginning of the year by a considerable margin. This year’s growth is overshadowed by the phenomenal growth of 18.19 percent in the financial year 2020-21.

According to the related preliminary data released by the central  Government, the total exports of drugs and pharmaceuticals for the financial year 2021-22, which ended on March 31, 2022, was $24.47 billion, recording only a marginal improvement on $24.44 billion registered in the previous year. That is even more perplexing given that it comes at a time when the overall merchandise exports of the country have seen an astonishing 43.18 percent increase in the corresponding 12 months of the previous financial year. The later recorded exports worth $417.81 billion as compared to $291.81 billion.

Exports of the pharmaceuticals sector for the month of March have registered in March 2022 once again. It declined by 1.46 percent to report $2.26 billion compared to $2.29 percent in the same month of the previous year. That is the third consecutive month that the sector registered a decline in exports this year. Previously January reported a decrease of 1.15 percent, while February saw an increase of 3.13 percent.

The drugs and pharmaceuticals commodity group remain in the fifth position making 5.86 percent of total exports among the top 10 major commodity groups from which commodities are exported from the country. The engineering goods commodity group precedes the group, petroleum products commodity group, gems, and jewelry commodity group, and organic and inorganic chemicals commodity group.

In the seven months starting from September, the sector had registered a decline in six months, with the only exception being the month of December 2021, when it reported a growth of 5.2 percent to a record $2.32 billion export as compared to $2.2 billion in the same month of the previous financial year.

The year 2020-21 saw an exceptional growth of 18.19 percent in exports, to $24.4 billion, which is a kind of growth that happened after eight years.

Several reasons impact the exports in the current financial year, including the increase in freight costs and a decline in exports to the united states owing to the still pending regulatory inspections of Indian sites by the United States Food and Drug Administration, claimed industry experts.

Some of the warning letters issued by the United States Food and Drug Administration also impacted the exports to the US market. Other reasons impacting the exports include ending the pandemic emergency, which may have affected several products, and increased competition from some emerging markets.

Some of the manufacturers in Japan and Europe have also revived their pharma business during the Covid-19 period and started supplying to the United States, another factor that may explain the decline in exports.

Pharmaceutical exports have registered good growth in the last few years. It showed a 2.92 percent growth for the year 2017-18, at $17.28 billion. The year 2018-19 had seen a tremendous growth of 10.72 percent to $19.13 billion over the previous year. The year 2019-20 saw an increase of 7.57 percent to $20.58 billion. These good years were crowned by an eight-year high of 18.19 percent growth to $24.44 billion in the financial year 2020-21, which may have prompted the ambitious target set by the government of India for the industry.