NEW DELHI: The production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the pharma sector has attracted Rs 46,744 crore in investments as of June 2026, which is nearly 2.7 times the Rs 17,275 crore target set for the scheme. The investment has helped drive total sales of Rs 4.03 lakh crore, including exports of Rs 2.57 lakh crore, while generating 1.21 lakh jobs, the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers said on Friday.
The government said the bulk drug PLI has attracted Rs 5,210.74 crore, above its committed investment of Rs 4,330 crore. So far, 39 projects covering 28 APIs have been commissioned, with domestic production including critical inputs such as Penicillin-G, Clavulanic Acid and Rifampicin.
The latest figures show a 11.5% jump in investment between December 2025 and June 2026, while cumulative sales rose 20.2% during the period.
The two schemes — bulk-drug PLI and the pharma PLI — were designed to address weaknesses in the drug supply chain. Approved in 2020, the bulk-drug PLI was aimed at building domestic capacity for drug intermediates (DIs) and APIs and reducing the risk from excessive import dependence on China.
On the other side, the pharma PLI was approved in 2021 to push manufacturers towards high-value medicines, including complex generics, biopharma, biosimilars and other specialised products.
“The scheme was launched to strengthen domestic manufacturing of 41 identified critical products and reduce dependence on imports, particularly for APIs and other essential pharmaceutical building blocks,” the official statement said.
But the data do not yet show a broad reduction in dependence on China. For example, the country’s imports of APIs, key starting materials (KSMs) and drug intermediates from China rose from Rs 18,646 crore in FY21 to Rs 27,032 crore in FY25, as per government data. Also, China’s share of these imports was about 68.2% in FY21 and 73.7% in FY25. The data indicate that the PLI has created domestic capacity in targeted products, but the overall dependence on Chinese pharma inputs remains high.
The government has maintained since last year that 191 of the 726 APIs, KSMs and drug intermediates being manufactured under the PLI are being made in India for the first time, helping reduce imports of these products.
Besides production incentives, the government has over the years introduced measures to reduce import dependence and strengthen domestic API manufacturing. As part of this effort, it approved a separate bulk drug parks scheme in 2020 to lower production costs. Since then, three parks have been approved in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh each.
Separately, the medical device PLI scheme has led to the domestic production of 57 high-end devices, including MRI machines, CT scanners, cath labs and linear accelerators, the government said.
Source: The Financial Express
