India Pharma Outlook Team | Monday, 04 August 2025
India’s bulk drug imports maintained their downward trend in FY26 for the third consecutive month.
June 2025 showed a 12.36% decrease in bulk drug imports at $327.05 million compared to $373.18 million in previous year.
The import volume rose by 2% to 38,889 metric tonnes (MT), but the estimated decrease in value suggests that sourcing strategies and domestic production potential are changing.
In rupee currencies, for June, imports declined to Rs 2,809.5 crore down 9.8%, compared with Rs 3,115 crore in June 2024.
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While June is not a mark for other months, the tone for FY26 has already been set for the first quarter (April–June 2025) bulk drug imports was decreased 6.9% at $1.08 billion compared to $1.16 billion in the same quarter a year previous. The FY25 first quarter had seen bulk drug imports increase 8.4%.
The quantity of bulk drugs imported for Q1 FY26 was 1,26,817 MT, an increase of only 1.44% versus the FY25 first quarter of 16.4%. Compared to rupees, imports were down 4.45% to Rs 9,279.8 crore compared to Rs 9,712 crore a year previous.
This drop is consistent with the efforts by the central government to limit dependencies on imported pharmaceutical raw materials. As part of the PLI scheme, domestic production of APIs, KSMs, and intermediates are increasing. As of March 2025, Rs 4,570 crore investment was made under the scheme, surpassing the six-year target. This has led to sales worth Rs 22,658 crore, including over 190 APIs produced locally for the first time—sharply cutting reliance on imports.
