‘Pharma industry has stocks of active ingredients for just 3 months’

The Indian pharma industry has expressed deep concern on the situation of its stocks in the wake of the deadly coronavirus outbreak in China, the epicentre of the epidemic from where India imports large quantities of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).

The Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) has described the situation in terms of raw material import from China as “critical and serious”, stating the industry has enough stocks of APIs for two to three months only.

Speaking on the sidelines of BioAsia 2020, IPA Secretary General Sudarshan Jain said they were in touch with the Centre, seeking faster environmental clearances for some of the API manufacturing units so that dependence on China was reduced.

According to Jain, India imports ₹17,000 crore worth of APIs from the novel coronavirus-hit nation. “It is a very critical and serious situation. No one has got the full predictability of what is happening. We have inventories for two to three months,” Jain said.

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“What we are trying to do is work with the government to see the environmental clearances can be given faster wherever there are issues, so that they (the APIs which are being imported from China) can be manufactured in India and we can have alternate source of supplies,” he said.

Jain said as such China has extended Lunar holidays in that country and the situation may ease from March first week. Replying to a query, he also said the Indian Pharma industry may also consider some of the European destinations for API supplies.

“If we start having the supplies from first week of March (from China), we should be able to come out of the problem. However, it is very difficult to predict whether situation improves. We are monitoring the situation on a daily basis,” he added.

(With inputs from agencies)

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