PHARMA LITERATI

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has extended Foreign Trade Policy by a year till March 31, 2021 following several representations from various export promotion bodies in the country including Pharmexcil in the wake of 21-day lockdown announced by the government to contain the spread of coronavirus. The existing foreign trade policy 2015-2020 which is valid upto March 31, 2020 is extended upto March 31, 2021, stated a notification issued by the DGFT. Besides this, the validity of other import linked export schemes including Duty Free Import Authorisation (DFIA) and Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) have also been extended for a year till March 31, 2021, stated the notification. EPCG scheme enables an importer to import capital goods used in the production of goods meant for export at zero rates of customs duty while DFIA is issued to allow duty free import of inputs. However, for all DFIAs (including transferable DFIAs), where the validity for impor...

The UK is now facing a national shortage of paracetamol, commonly used to fight Covid-19, due to India curbing exports of the drug during the global pandemic. Pharmacists  across the UK are being forced to ration paracetamol-containing products to one packet per customer, with many shops completely out of stock of the world's most popular painkiller. On March 3, India restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the  medicines  made from them, which included paracetamol, some antibiotics and certain vitamins. Department for International Trade officials in the UK are currently in discussions with their Indian counterparts about easing those restrictions for key British suppliers. India is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of drugs, with the UK heavily reliant on its supply. India’s pharmaceutical companies source about 70 per cent of their ingredients from Chinese factories and the main ingredient of paracetamol is primarily man...