From Penicillin-G to vitamin B1, Modi govt plans special incentives to ramp up production of 41 drugs

Drugmakers in the country will get as much as 10-20 per cent of their annual turnover as incentive.

In a move to further bolster Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for the Atmanirbhar Bharat in the pharmaceutical sector, the central government has a special scheme in the pipeline to ramp up the production of as many as 41 drugs that are used for wide-ranging purposes in the country. According to an IE report, the scheme will be focussed on broad-spectrum drugs such as penicillin-G, vitamin B1, prednisolone, and diclofenac sodium along with drugs used in the management of Tuberculosis and various heart disorders.

As per the IE report, a technical committee that was set up to lay out the contours of the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme worth Rs 6,940 crore announced earlier this year in March has submitted its final draft to the Department of Pharmaceuticals last week. The report has quoted a senior government official as saying that the department is planning to release the guidelines “as soon as possible” to help pharma manufacturing firms to step up their capacity to meet the requirement of bulk drugs in the country

Drugmakers in the country will get as much as 10-20 per cent of their annual turnover as incentive depending on the category of input from the government for boosting the indigenous production and supply of the bulk drugs.

The government has planned to launch the PLI scheme with an objective to promote the domestic production of chemical synthesis-based and fermentation-based pharmaceutical ingredients. As stated earlier, the government has approved almost 41 bulk drugs under the provisions of the PLI scheme that includes penicillin-G, diclofenac sodium, vitamin B1, prednisolone, valsartan and rifampicin that have a wide range of applications in the management of several diseases of human beings.

The move may come at the time when the sentiments against China have risen to an all-time high in the country following a deadly standoff in Ladakh. Notably, Chinese imports in pharmaceutical equipment and materials account for approximately 70 percent of the bulk drug imported by India in the last few years.