Being a responsible and generous country, India has decided to export Coronavirus preventive Hydroxychloroquine to all the countries in need, including the United States and its neighbours.
A day after the mainstream media ran a misleading story that India opened export of HCQ after Trump threatened for retaliation; the US President praised and thanked PM Modi in an interview with Fox News. “I bought millions of doses. More than 29 million. I spoke to Prime Minister Modi, a lot of it comes out of India. I asked him if he would release it? He was great. He was really good,” said Trump.
India, a major exporter of pharmaceutical products around the world, has been very responsible in maintaining the supplies of the medicines to the world, unlike China. After spreading Coronavirus throughout the globe, China is supplying faulty testing kits, ‘underwear masks’, and damaged Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) to countries around the world.
The Indian government is making sure that Indian companies do not get a bad name like China in these testing times. “We don’t want to be bracketed with China when the world is facing the pandemic. We have commitments and responsibility to countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and all those who are dependent on Indian drugs,” said a senior government official.
Just a few days ago, the United Kingdom purchased 3.5 million anti-body testing kits from China and a day later it was revealed that none of those are working.
As if the faulty Chinese equipment were not enough, the Communist government sold PPEs to Italy after Italy donated them. “Before the virus hit Europe, Italy sent tons of PPE to China to help China protect its own population,” the administration official explained. “China then has sent Italian PPE back to Italy — some of it, not even all of it … and charged them for it,” he added.
At a time when Chinese government and companies receiving flak from politicians around the world, and every commoner is cursing Chinese crisis-profiteering, Indian government and companies have risen to occasion.
The Indian companies have decided to increase the production of HCQ by 5-6 times. The country already accounts for 70 percent of global supply for HCQ, and produces 20 lakh 200mg tablets every month, but now, with exponential rise in demand as it has been cleared as preventive drug against Covid-19, the companies like Ipca, Zycus Cadila plan to increase production many time to meet the global demand.
The tremendous task taken by Indian pharmaceutical industry is winning friends for the country around the world. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro quoted Ramayana in a Thank You letter to PM Modi. “Just as Lord Hanuman brought the holy medicine from the Himalayas to save the life of Lord Rama’s brother Lakshmana, and Jesus healed those who were sick and restored the sight to Bartimeu, India and Brazil will overcome this global crisis by joining forces and sharing blessings for the sake of all peoples,” wrote Bolsonaro in a letter delivered on Hanuman Jayanti.
The goodwill won by Indian pharmaceutical industry during these tough times shall help the companies to expand in global markets once the pandemic is over. China, the factory of the world so far, might lose its premier position to India, given the distrust of the people and governments after it supplies of faulty PPEs and anti-body testing kits to countries around the globe.
On the other hand, Indian pharmaceutical industry has risen up in these critical times and supplying the life saving drug to countries around the world. India is one of the largest pharmaceutical exporters with a total export of 12.1 billion dollars, or, 3.4 percent to the global market, and ranks 9th in the list of top global exporters of pharmaceutical products.
Currently, the industry has annual revenue of around 1.3 lakh crore rupees or 33 billion United States dollars. The largest players are Dilip Shanghvi led Sun Pharmaceutical, Lupin Limited of Desh Bandhu Gupta, Dr. Reddy laboratories of Reddy’s, Cipla, Aurbindo Pharma, Piramal Enterprise, Glenmark Pharmaceutical, Torrent, Biocon, and Serum Institute.
Many Indian billionaires made their fortunes in the pharmaceutical sector, and it is arguably the largest sector in terms of the number of billionaires after the Information Technology-BPM sector.
