Pharma exports from India grew by a small, less than 1% in April, amid the lockdown for COVID-19 that impacted production as well movement of the products.

It is something to cheer about, said Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India Director General Udaya Bhaskar about the April 2020 export of $1,531.06 million.

What made this uptick special, as per a quick estimate of Pharmexcil, is that exports fared better than the domestic market where revenues reportedly fell in the same month, he said. A good part of the push in exports could be attributed to the shipment of the piled-up stocks of March, he said, pointing out how export performance in the last month of 2019-20 was a minus 23.24% year-on-year. It also dragged pharma exports in the last quarter down – a negative growth of 2.97% – and impacted the annual performance as well.

Domestic market hit

While challenges remained the same for pharmaceutical manufacturers, exports were better on account of the easing in logistics, whereas domestic revenues were impacted as lockdown curbs impacted movement of professionals and people, and hospitals were only attending to emergencies. An industry leader recently said primary demand was likely to be impacted as patients did not get to meet their doctors during the lockdown.

The domestic pharma market as well the pharma export revenues are around $20 billion each, Mr. Bhaskar said.

On how raw material availability was an issue for the industry, he said usually 3-4 months of inventory of APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) and packaging material was maintained by the companies. Since the shipments that arrived in December were in use and supplies from China were yet to come back full steam, a clear picture will emerge by this month end, he said.