Congress MP from Punjab's Anandpur Sahib, Manish Tewari has flagged the profits of the pharma industry and urged the parliamentary committee to look into it.
On Monday, Tewari said, "Indian Pharmaceutical Industry has reaped Megabucks from COVID-19 Sample this "The pharma industry grew 37 percent year-on-year and 15 percent sequentially in Q1FY22. The growth was driven by sales of COVID treatment drugs and other drugs."
Tewari quoted reports that the growth in the pharma exports in FY 2021 was $ 24 billion which increased to 18.4 percent and is the highest in nine years in the country.
He said the pharma companies are not giving anything back to society.
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"Have they given back anything to the Community? There should be a full discussion on the Profitability of the Pharmaceutical Industry during COVID- 19. I urge the Chairperson of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health should investigate this issue in detail "
As per the latest report on the ministry website, "The Indian pharmaceutical industry is the world's 3rd largest by volume and 14th largest in terms of value. The total annual turnover of Pharmaceuticals was Rs 2,89,998 crore for the year 2019-2020. Total pharmaceutical exports and imports were to the tune of Rs 1,46,260 crore and Rs 42,943 crore respectively in the year 2019-20."
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The Department of pharmaceuticals on its website says without mentioning any time frame that India exported drugs worth US$ 15 billion to more than 200 countries, including highly regulated markets in the US, Europe, Japan, and Australia. Large Indian pharma companies have emerged as among the most competitive in the evolving generic space in North America and have created an unmatched platform in this space. Indian companies are also making their presence felt in the emerging markets around the world, particularly with a strong portfolio in anti-infective and antiretrovirals.
