Commerce Minister, Shri Piyush Goyal has called on India’s pharmaceutical sector to move beyond generics towards greater R&D and global resilience.
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal said India must build resilient, globally integrated healthcare supply chains and move beyond its success in generics towards greater research, development and innovation, speaking at the Bharat Health Global Expo 2026 in New Delhi. The Minister attended alongside Minister of State for Commerce and Industry and Electronics and Information Technology, Shri Jitin Prasada and Commerce Secretary Shri Rajesh Agarwal.
Shri Goyal said the world was increasingly seeking resilient supply chains and was uncomfortable with excessive dependence on one or two locations that could be weaponised. He noted India had earlier lost ground in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Key Starting Materials and said it was now time to restore resilience, while clarifying this did not mean an inward-looking approach, as imports would continue where necessary. He added that pooling India’s demand would help identify products currently imported where domestic production has potential, and that competition for investment now extended to developed economies including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Europe.
On research and innovation, Shri Goyal said India could not rest on its success in generics if it aimed to become a developed country by 2047, calling for greater R&D, patenting of products and a stronger regulatory mechanism to attract investment in clinical trials and new product development. He urged Indian companies to focus on new molecules, biosimilars and biotechnology, and called for closer regulatory convergence with developed nations.
The Minister also highlighted medical value travel, a market he said was worth almost USD 8 billion, and called for it to be pursued in mission mode, noting that SEPC had already undertaken initiatives with CII, FICCI and other bodies in this area. On infrastructure, he pointed to bulk drug parks under development in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, alongside 100 new industrial parks that could include dedicated pharma and healthcare zones. On medical devices, he called for a shift from assembly towards indigenous production of components, and on Ayush, he called for greater scientific validation of products to support wider global acceptance.
On trade access, Shri Goyal said nearly two-thirds of the global market was already open to India through Free Trade Agreements, with another 8 to 10 agreements under negotiation that would extend access to around 75 per cent of global trade. He said India’s FTAs before 2014 covered markets with a combined GDP of USD 10 trillion, compared with USD 60 trillion covered by nine more recent agreements spanning 38 developed countries, many of which had remained stuck for 25 years. He called on the industry to aim higher, adopt a global outlook, prioritise quality and invest in R&D, describing the goal as making India the “health stack for the globe.”
Source: Press Information Bureau
