‘Make Medicines In India’: Domestically Manufactured Pharmaceuticals To Be Preferred, Says Government 

In a major boost to domestic pharmaceutical companies, the government on Tuesday (1 January) announced that public procurement programmes in the pharmaceutical sector will give preference to drugs manufactured domestically, with a minimum of 75 per cent local inputs in the current financial year, which will increase to 90 per cent by 2023-25, reports Mint.

The move is part of the Make in India push to encourage domestic manufacturing. On the other hand, as per the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) the minimum local content for foreign manufactured drugs has been set at 10 per cent in the current fiscal.

This requirement is said to increase to 15 per cent in 2019-21, 20 per cent by 2021-23 and 30 per cent for 2023-25.

While setting out these minimum criteria, the DoP stated that, “purchase preference shall be provided by all government procuring entities to local suppliers of pharmaceutical formulations in various dosages forms.”

This directive will apply to the procurement of medicines made by state governments as well as Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) under state governments, as well as local bodies which are funded by central schemes either partially or fully.