India runs the risk of a severe shortage of medicines because of its over dependence on China for sourcing raw material for drugs, national security adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval has warned. According to the NSA, India should take immediate concrete steps to create adequate infrastructure to become self-sufficient for manufacturing medicines which are essential in nature. "The national security adviser had highlighted concerns related to overdependence on China for supply of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API).
Following this, a core committee of experts was formed under the health ministry and a policy would soon be finalized to boost domestic manufacturing of bulk drugs used in medicine formulations," a senior official in the government privy to the developments, told. Currently, India imports over 80-85% of API, or raw material used in medicines, from China. This is crucial because any…
