India Expedites Clearance for API Projects Amid COVID-19 Outbreak, an Industrial Info Market Brief

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In a bid to ensure availability of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) amid the COVID-19 outbreak, India has expedited environmental clearance procedures for all API manufacturing projects. Proposals requiring environmental clearance will now be approved by the respective state-level authorities and will not require clearance by the federal government.

"The decision.... will enable project proponents relating to APIs to get environmental approvals at (the) state level itself instead of the Centre. This decision has also been taken to prevent any possible disruption in supply of APIs in India," said Prakash Javadekar, India's minister for environment, forest and climate change, in a tweet.

One of the world's largest suppliers of generic medicines, India relies on China by as much as 70-80% for some specific APIs. The new clearance procedure is expected to help accelerate execution of API projects that have been delayed primarily due to environmental clearance issues.

Industrial Info's India database includes has 436 API projects in the planning phases that are awaiting approvals. Click here for a list of projects and see map below.