HyderabadLed by a steep surge in October, pharmaceutical exports grew 8.1 per cent to reach $15,785 million during April - October in the current financial year compared to $14,598 million in the corresponding period last year.

“There was stupendous growth of 29.3 per cent in pharma exports in the month of October during FY24 at $2424 million as against $1875 million in the same month last year,” R Uday Bhaskar, Director-General, Pharmaceutical Exports Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) told businessline.

The drivers for the surge are the shortage of drugs in the US and European markets and revival of African markets, according to Pharmexcil Chief.

While the projection of pharma exports for the full year till now is at $27 billion, given the current run rate in April - October this year, the total exports are likely to cross the $28 billion mark. In FY23 pharma exports were at $25.3 billion.

Drug formulations and biologicals continue to have a Lion’s share in the total exports during April - October this year accounting for 73.5 per cent of total exports. In value terms, the exports from these two segments brought in $11,598 million. 

NAFTA (USA, Canada and Mexico) Europe and Africa are the country’s three major regions for pharma exports. These three regions together account for almost 69 per cent of total pharma exports. 

Within these three regions NAFTA comprised 33.75 per cent of exports. During Apr-Oct FY24, exports to this region were $5327.24 million and the region grew by over 8.85 per cent.

“All regions except for CIS have registered a positive growth during the period of Apr-Oct FY24. Exports to CIS declined by 9.66 per cent. There has been a continuous fall in the exports largely due to the ongoing crisis and Russia being the largest market has also been in constant decline,” Bhaskar said. 

India’s top 5 countries for pharma exports during Apr-Oct FY24 were USA, Netherlands, UK, Brazil and South Africa. “South Africa, which was previously in the sixth position, has moved up to the 5th position. We may expect the market to even out in the next few periods. Exports to the USA, which account for 30.72 per cent of our exports in pharma products, have expanded by 9.58 per cent which previously grew at 6.67 per cent” he added. 

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