Has India also been pushing to develop its pharma exposure to Russia amidst the sanctions?

It is not just in oil and steel that India is seeing an opportunity in the Russia Ukraine war. Pharmaceuticals is one more sector where there is a huge opportunity that is opening up in a big way. In fact, the Russian ambassador to India Denis Alipov expressed confidence that the Indian pharmaceutical companies could easily replace the demand for Western companies in Russia. India already heavily exports pharma products to Russia.

Amidst the sanctions imposed on Russia by the West, India is one country that has held its own and supported Russia in these tough times. These sanctions had come in the aftermath of Russia attacking Ukraine. Amidst this chaos, Russia has openly lauded India’s independent approach on trading with Russia. With many global companies vacating Russian markets, it opens up a huge opportunity for India to tap the complicated Russian pharma market.

Alipov pointed out that Indian pharma companies were at par with the rest of the world in skills and many of their generic products were as good as the original formulations. He also added that India’s ability to scale up the manufacture of vaccines globally was the key factor in the success of the anti-COVID drive. Russia has said that it was open to allowing Indian pharma companies to take the place of the global pharma players.