Mansukh Mandaviya inaugurates 40 new facilities to manufacture bulk drugs, medical devices

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Mansukh Mandaviya on Saturday inaugurated 40 new facilities across the country to manufacture bulk drugs and medical devices to enhance self-reliance and reduce dependence on imports for such critical materials and equipment.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony here, Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Mansukh Mandaviya said the country has taken a big step towards self-reliance, with the commissioning of 27 new bulk drug facilities and 13 medical device manufacturing plants.

The facilities, owned by various companies, were commissioned under the PLI Scheme for bulk drugs and medical devices, respectively.

Mandaviya said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the dangers of the supply chain getting affected, the risks of being highly dependent on imports of critical resources like bulk drugs and medical devices and its potential effects on India's pharma and MedTech sector led to a lot of brainstorming within the central government.

The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme from the sector is a result of the wide-ranging discussions, he noted.

Any disruption in the supply of critical APIs could have impacted the production of 1,000 formulations in the country, Mandaviya said.

«The PLI- scheme identified 48 critical bulk drugs for manufacturing locally. The success of this inaugural scheme led the government to launch the Rs 15,000 crore PLI-II scheme, which envisaged to increase our cost competitiveness for medicines and medical products in the international market,» he stated.

Around 12,000 drug firms in