India pharma exports may see near double-digit growth in FY17: Official

Hyderabad : Indian pharma exports in the current financial year may see a near double-digit growth and might end up on the lines with that of last year, a senior Ministry of Commerce and Industry official said here.

"Pharma exports have done better than many sectorial exports and we are in near double digit growth. Last month, growth has also been good it is about 8 per cent. So I see that despite overall contraction and slowdown, pharma exports doing relatively better. I don t think that it (double digit growth) would be possible," Sudhanshu Pandey, Joint Secretary, Commerce Ministry told reporters on the sidelines of BioAsia- 2017, when asked if the exports would see double digit growth this year.

"We should be some way between 8 to 10 per cent. That is what is the anticipation, he

Indian Pharma exports stood at USD 16.9 billion in the last financial year, growing at 9.44 per cent with USD 5.7 billion to USA and USD 3.3 billion to Africa, as per the statistics supplied by Pharmexcil. The exports stood at USD 15.4 billion in 2014-15.

Pandey said there may not be much impact of Brexit on pharma exports in either Britain or Europe as the situation has stabilised with regard to exports to those geographies.

"You have already seen impact on the exports but now exports have in fact stabilised and there is growth in the last month. So I think the trend would be in that direction," he said.

Replying to query, he said Indian Institutes of Chemical Technology (IICT) will offer space to industry either for setting up a startup incubator or for research purpose.

According to Pandey, NITI Aayog is working on model wherein the government will be able to invest in some of the risk oriented research programmes.