Skills That You Can Learn From Chinese Pharma Mess | UPSC

PROTECTIONIST POLICES :

• USA : The federal government seized masks, thermometers and other essentials ordered by different states.
• FRANCE  : The government requisitioned all available masks for its own use.
• ISRAEL  : The country deployed its intelligence agency, Mossad, to take control of all ventilators in the country.

• GERMANY : It has 25,000 ventilators with 10,000 more on way, but the country is unwilling to share it.

ACTIVE PHARMACEUTICAL INGREDIENTS (APIS)

RESTRICTED LIST : India put 13 APIS, also called bulk drugs, and their formulations on the restricted list for exports on March 3 and then banned their export on April 4.

EXPORT INDICES : These accounted for 10 per cent of India’s total pharma export.

• The anti-malarial HCQ was part of the list.
• But India was forced to lift the ban on humanitarian grounds.
• Export of formulations made from paracetamol were also allowed, though DGFT continued to restrict export of the API for paracetamol.

THE API CRISIS

• Developed countries make APIS only for patented drugs.
• It is left to India and China to produce APIS for generic drugs.
• The US imports 80 per cent of the APIS from the two countries.

CHINESE HEGEMONY :

• China is the biggest player.
• It provides 97 per cent of the antibiotics and over 90 per cent of vitamin C used in the US.

•  90 per cent of the APIS for generic medicines in the EU were sourced from India and China.

CHINESE MARKET DOMINANCE STRATEGY :

• Sector first developed in China, it was state-owned.
• The government’s strategically support to  the industry.
• Incentives such as cheap electricity,Water and labour,
• Negligible financial costs and no charge on land;
• Established special industrial zones.

Chinese APIS in 2018 was $30.48 billion and the export volume reached 929.72 million tonnes.-China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health .

INDIA vs CHINA #PHARMA BATTLE : 

China emerged the winner and managed to kill India’s existing pharmaceutical sector.

FOR EXAMPLE : China dumped cheap Penicillin G in India, outperforming Indian manufacturers like Hindustan Antibiotic in the public sector and many more.

• Unlike China, India is more involved in producing finished products.
• India is the world’s largest provider of generic medicines, accounting for 20 per cent of global generic drug exports in volume terms.