Made in India tag in a medicine often reminds you two things-high quality and low price. Ability to quickly master production of niche medicines, competitive domestic firms, strong R&D back up and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient supply makes the pharmaceutical industry of the country very competitive. In the pharmaceutical world, India is often considered as the Robinhood. Medicins sans Frontiers once described India as the ‘pharmacy for the developing world’. The low price tag along with high quality makes Indian drugs favorite among the developing countries at the same time ensuring health security in several poor countries.
India is one of the largest producers of pharmaceuticals as it being the third largest in production volume (10 per cent share) and fourteenth by value (1.4 per cent share) worldwide. India has the largest number of United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) recognized plants outside the US. Around 584 Indian companies/sites are registered with the USFDA. There are around 10000 registered pharmaceutical companies in India.
India exports to over 200 countries and it is one of the top ten pharmaceutical exporters. Pharmaceutical exports clocked US$ 15.5 billion during 2014–15. The US is the largest importer of Indian products.