India, Japan need closer cooperation in pharma, medical devices sector: Pharma Secy

The pharma and medical devices sector in India is attracting very good levels of foreign direct investment as the government is giving speedy approvals for FDI proposals in the sector, Department of Pharmaceuticals Secretary P D Vaghela said. The Indian government has also launched a production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for promoting manufacturing of medical devices across the country, he added.

There is a need for India and Japan to work together to tap the opportunities provided by the pharmaceutical and medical devices industry in India, a top government official said on Thursday.

The pharma and medical devices sector in India is attracting very good levels of foreign direct investment as the government is giving speedy approvals for FDI proposals in the sector, Department of Pharmaceuticals Secretary P D Vaghela said. He was addressing a virtual investment forum for Japanese investors.

The Indian pharmaceutical sector is currently the third-largest in the world in terms of volume and 14th largest in terms of value, he added. "In our trade with Japan, we export USD 180 million worth of mainly APIs and some generics and we import some of the high-end medicines from them. "In medical devices, we import around USD 268 million from Japan, which is a very small percentage of USD 5.6 billion of the medical devices imported by India from all over the world," Vaghela said.

Both the countries need to work together so that the opportunity which India presents is fully exploited by Japan, he added. "We have 81 pharma clusters in the country with available land, and recently we have launched four schemes, with two schemes for bulk drugs focusing on manufacturing of critical key starting materials (KSM), drug intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)," Vaghela said.

"Last time I was told that Japan could be interested in investing in these schemes, so we can sign a partnership or help you invest in these schemes, which are very attractive," he added. The Indian government has also launched a production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for promoting the manufacturing of medical devices across the country, he added.

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