India still imports over 70% of key pharma ingredients from China: government data
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India continues to rely heavily on China for pharmaceutical raw materials, with more than 70 percent of several critical drug ingredients still being imported from the country, according to government data presented in Parliament.
Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Anupriya Patel disclosed the figures in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The data shows that dependence on China remains high for several Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and drug intermediates despite efforts to boost domestic manufacturing through the Production Linked Incentive scheme.
Several products show China dependence levels of 70 percent or more, while many essential medicines and intermediates have reliance exceeding 90 percent. In some cases, the dependence is complete.
Intermediates used to produce Rifampicin, a key drug for tuberculosis, and Methyldopa, used to treat high blood pressure, currently have 100 percent dependence on China. Other widely used antibiotics and intermediates, such as Erythromycin, Gentamicin, Streptomycin, Tetracycline, and Norfloxacin, also show dependence levels above 90 percent.
Import figures highlight the scale of the reliance.
Imports of 6-APA, a key raw material for penicillin antibiotics, rose to 407.64 million dollars in the financial year 2025 from 396.51 million dollars in the previous year, with dependence on China reaching nearly 96 percent. Penicillin and its salts also saw dependence increase to about 93 percent in 2025 from 77 percent in the previous year.
Erythromycin imports showed a similar trend, with China dependence rising to nearly 98 percent in 2025 from about 93 percent in 2024.
The government has introduced a Production Linked Incentive scheme for bulk drugs to reduce import dependence. Under the scheme, 41 critical APIs were identified, and 33 have received industry participation. A total of 48 new manufacturing projects have been approved, with 38 commissioned by December 2025.
The initiative has created domestic production capacity of about 56,800 metric tonnes annually across 28 critical products and generated cumulative sales of 2,720 crore rupees, while helping avoid imports worth about 2,192 crore rupees.