East India Pharmaceutical Works Limited Unlisted Shares Essentials

Introduction: 

• Healthcare has become one of India’s largest Sector, both in terms of revenue and employment.
• Healthcare comprises hospitals, medical devices, clinical trials, outsourcing, telemedicine, medical tourism, health insurance and medical equipment.
• The Indian healthcare sector is growing at a brisk pace due to its strengthening coverage, services and increasing expenditure by public as well private players.
• India's competitive advantage lies in its large pool of well-trained medical professionals. 
• India is also cost competitive compared to its peers in Asia and Western countries. The cost of surgery in India is about one-tenth of that in the US or Western Europe.

• Between April 2000 and December 2020, FDI inflows for drugs and pharmaceuticals sector stood at US$ 17.74 billion
• In February 2021, India approved the commercial supply of 24 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 25 countries, more than 2x the 10.5 million vaccines exported in January 2021. Through this, seven countries, including Brazil, Morocco and South Africa, were sent >~10 million doses on a commercial basis.
• By March 2021, India exported more vaccines than it had administered to its citizens—60 million doses had been dispatched to 76 countries, while 52 million doses had been administered to Indian citizens. Apart from vaccines, drugs indicated for Covid-19 treatment too witnessed an uptrend in exports. For example, Remdesivir exports doubled in March 2021 to $14.8 million from $5.75 million in February 2021
• In February 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stones for two hospitals and launched ‘Asom Mala’, a programme for state highways and major district roads, in Assam. He also added that ~1.25 crore people in the state are being benefitted from Ayushman Bharat Scheme.

• On May 12, 2021, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), accepted recommendation of Subject Expert Committee (SEC) and accorded permission to conduct the Phase II/III clinical trials of Covaxin (COVID vaccine) for the age group of 2-18 years to its manufacturer, Bharat Biotech Ltd.
• On May 17, 2021, the Defence Ministry launched the first batch of anti-COVID drug, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) that was developed by the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), along with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), Hyderabad.
• In May 2021, the government announced its plan to ramp up supply and availability of Amphotericin-B, the anti-fungal drug, for treatment of the ‘Black Fungus’ disease. It has also given the license to five manufactures to produce the drug within the country.