India – famous for being Pharmacy to the World, has recorded a modest 5.2% growth in exports in Q1 of the ongoing New Financial Year 2025-26. Pharmaceutical Exports amounted to USD  $7.57 billion in the first quarter of the current financial year compared with the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
India’s Exports Basket
Mr. Namit Joshi, Chairman of Phramexcil (Pharmaceuticals Exports Promotion Council) stated that Indian Pharmaceutics continue to solidify pivotal role in Global Healthcare space despite the expected setback from a threat of increased Trump Tariffs in the coming months.
Formulations and Biologics constitute more than 75% of the export’s basket, followed by Bulk Drugs and Intermediates at almost 16%.
Apart from the NAFTA region, the growth in exports was also registered in Oceania, Latin American countries and Africa. The growth in exports was also partly offset by increasing pricing pressure in the US markets, which hit both topline and bottomline of major drug-makers.
IMPORTS – MAJOR CATEGORIES
India’s imports during the month of June’ 2025 had also gone up by 4.21 per cent to $786 million compared with the year-ago period. The major categories of pharma products imported were bulk drugs and drug intermediaries which comprised 46 per cent of the total pharma imports.
However, a declining trend was noted in this major segment of imports, as the government and industry have been trying to reduce dependency on imports, which is one of the objectives of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.
Future Trends
The industry has its fingers crossed on the growth in exports in the remaining quarters of the current financial year. “While we expect the growth to continue in the rest of the year, there are challenges in the form of continuation of pricing pressure in the US market as well as the issue of tariffs which are exempted on drugs as of now. We need to wait and watch for the time being,” said an executive director of a major pharma company. In the last financial year, pharmaceutical exports increased 9.39 per cent to $30.47 billion from $27.85 billion in FY’ 24.
