India Pharma Outlook Team | Wednesday, 23 July 2025
India saved Rs. 1,362 crore in pharma raw material imports due to strategic investment under the PLI Scheme for Bulk Drugs, the government told Parliament on Tuesday.
Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Anupriya Patel, in a written response to the Rajya Sabha, said the scheme has significantly enhanced the country's domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities and reduced dependence on imports of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), drug intermediates (DIs), and key starting materials (KSMs).
As of March 2025, domestic production has been established for 25 priority pharma intermediates under the scheme. Cumulative sales of Rs. 1,817 crore, including Rs. 455 crore of exports, have been registered since the launch of the scheme, saving an import bill of Rs. 1,362 crore, Patel further added.
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With a total outlay of Rs. 6,940 crore, the PLI Scheme for Bulk Drugs has a six-year timeline aimed at raising India's self-sufficiency in major pharmaceutical inputs. With the initial investment pledge of Rs. 3,938.5 crore, actual investments stood at more than Rs. 4,570 crore as of March 2025.
It primarily targets APIs essential to the national healthcare requirement, particularly where alternatives are insufficient. This initiative is part of a broader strategy to mitigate India's single-country supply chain risk exposure, primarily related to one-country procurement.
Apart from the bulk drug scheme, the government has also introduced a boosted Rs. 15,000 crore PLI scheme for pharma and sanctioned three bulk drug parks in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Himachal Pradesh under a Rs. 3,000 crore infrastructure scheme. All these units are already at various stages of construction.
