Coronavirus impact: No medicine crunch in India, say pharma cos

The Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), a grouping of major 24 major domestic drug firms that account for 57 per cent of the Indian drug market, has today said they have an adequate stock of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), finished product formulations and channel availability and would be able to sustain the supply of medicines for the coming months.

"We are working with the Government of India including state governments, Indian pharmaceutical industry associations in India and key stakeholders in the pharmaceutical supply chain to ensure that patients in India and the world continue to have access to medicines. Our members are closely monitoring orders and inventories of medicines", IPA said today in a press release. It said at present the country is not facing any shortage of drugs.

IPA said it is working closely with the International Generic and Bio-similar Medicines Association (IGPA), World Health Organisation (WHO) headquarters in Switzerland and its India office, Association of Affordable Medicines (AAM) the USA, Medicines for Europe and several other country associations to assess international developments and any potential impact on the supply of medicines globally. Though India accounts for only 3.6 per cent of the global pharmaceutical market with $38 billion sales, the country is the largest exporter of generic drugs worldwide. The IPA members account for over 80 per cent of the pharmaceutical exports from India.

The Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), the grouping of multinational drug firms operating in the country, have also said its members have assured adequate availability ad supplies of medicines. It said OPPI members have adequate inventory in India and efforts are being made to step up production.

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