Telangana fast emerging as vaccine capital of India: Pharmexcil DG

Hyderabad, November 10, 2021:

Telangana state contributed about 20 per cent of India’s overall bulk drug exports to the global markets and stood as a major bulk drug manufacturer in the country. Not just this, the state is soon going to become the vaccine capital of India, with the state government providing the much needed ecosystem to the biotechnology firms, encouraged by which many companies like Dr. Reddy’s, Hetero, Virchow Biotech, Gland Pharma and Aurobindo are now venturing into vaccine manufacturing.

Speaking to Pharmabiz, Ravi Uday Bhaskar, director general of Pharmexcil said that of the overall $4.4 billion bulk drugs that were exported from India to the global markets in the financial year 2021, the contribution of Telangana state is immensely high contributing to about 20 per cent.

“Hyderabad is already known as the bulk drug capital of India. Many Hyderabad based bulk drug manufacturing firms are having approvals for their APIs/DMFs in the highly regulated markets like USA, EU and Japan and these firms continue to export bulk drugs in large volumes,” observed the Pharmexcil DG.

Referring to exports of vaccines, the Pharmexcil DG said that India still majorly exports only essential vaccine and it is NGO’s which supports over 90 per cent of these exports. Optional vaccine commands over 75 per cent of the vaccine market globally and Indian players share is very small.

Though Hyderabad based vaccine manufacturing companies made rapid strides in developing innovative and new vaccines to various diseases, there is still a need to improve India’s vaccine export share to the global markets.  India’s Exports of vaccines in financial year-2021 was $888 million. Serum Institute India based in Pune is the largest manufacturing unit so far by doses globally and commands over 60 per cent of the said value.

With various lessons learnt during the Covid pandemic and many vaccine manufacturers and drug makers thinking innovatively to counter any possible health emergencies in the future, there seems to have major plans among the various pharma and biotechnology firms which are to be unfolded soon. It is heartening to note companies based in Telangana are sensitive to this changing scenario, observed the DG.

With the Telangana state government offering very good industrial eco system, Hyderabad hosts several vaccine manufacturers which are continuously expanding.  “We should feel proud of Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad based company developed first indigenous vaccine Covaxin in collaboration with ICMR and NIV. Biological E Ltd is also in the forefront in manufacture & supply of Janssen’s Covid-19 vaccine and Corbevax. We hope soon they may take the lead in providing a sure cover against this out breaks and become a major source of supplies,” said Uday Bhaskar.

As several pharma units such as Dr. Reddy’s, Hetero, Virchow Biotech, Gland Pharma, Aurobindo etc are venturing into Covid vaccines, the Pharmexcil DG felt that very soon Hyderabad will emerge as vaccine capital of India. PharmaBiz