India's pharma exports expected to cross $30 billion by year-end: Union Minister Jitendra Singh

India’s pharma exports, currently valued at nearly $27.8 billion, are expected to cross $30 billion by this year end, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said here on Tuesday.

Singh disclosed that India's domestic pharma market is $60 billion, but is expected to double, that is, $130 billion by 2030.

The remarks come days after US President Donald Trump announced a 100 per cent tariff on branded or patented pharmaceutical products, unless the manufacturer is building a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in the United States.

Singh was speaking after signing of an MoU between the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), and the Uttar Pradesh government. The agreement, executed through DBT’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and the Uttar Pradesh Promote Pharma Council (UPPPC) is part of a Centre-state partnership model to accelerate innovation, entrepreneurship and investment in the pharma, biotech and MedTech sectors.

“Currently there are around 800 medical device manufacturers in the country and India's annual growth of the Med Tech sector is 15 to 20 per cent,” the minister said.

Officials said the collaboration will focus on advancing research and innovation, building a stronger ecosystem for startups, enhancing skill development and knowledge exchange, fostering closer industry linkages with small and medium enterprises and micro, small and medium enterprises and catalysing greater investment in the sector.

Singh said the rapid growth of India’s biotech ecosystem — from about 50 startups in 2014 to over 11,000 today — reflects the sector’s potential to drive the country’s economic and healthcare goals. He noted that India is now recognised as a global supplier of vaccines, with more than 60 per cent of the world’s vaccines manufactured here and over 200 countries receiving Indian-made doses.

DBT secretary and BIRAC chairman Dr Rajesh S Gokhale said the agreement with Uttar Pradesh would “unlock innovation pipelines and scale up affordable technologies.”

With India’s bioeconomy already valued at around $165 billion, the government sees Centre-state partnerships such as the DBT-UP collaboration as a way to accelerate India’s emergence as a global hub for accessible biopharma and MedTech solutions.

Dr Jitendra Kumar, managing director of BIRAC, said the partnership would focus on skill development, incubation, and commercialisation, ensuring that innovations reach markets faster and generate wider social and economic benefits.