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HomeNewsBusinessCompaniesGV Prasad of Dr Reddy's says 25% tariff on pharma exports could make medicines costlier for US consumers

GV Prasad of Dr Reddy's says 25% tariff on pharma exports could make medicines costlier for US consumers

Prasad said shifting all these products (manufacturing) from worldwide into US is not practical.

February 25, 2025 / 20:39 IST
North America, which is predominantly US contributed about 46.5% of Dr Reddy's overall revenues of Rs. 27,916.4 crore in FY24.
     
     
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    GV Prasad, Co-Chairman & Managing Director of Dr Reddy's said the proposed 25% tariff of Trump administration on pharmaceutical products imported from India, could make medicines expensive for US consumers.

    "They're talking about tariffs and I don't know what the level of tariff is," said Prasad told media on the side-lines of annual life sciences event BioAsia 2025 in Hyderabad.

    "I think it'll make it costlier for the US consumers or the US intermediaries," Prasad added.

    Prasad said shifting all these products (manufacturing) from worldwide into US is not practical.

    "Firstly, they don't have that much capacity, secondly their costs are high even with the tariff," Prasad said.

    Prasad said Dr Reddy's has manufacturing footprint in US, but it's expensive to make products in the US at scale and already the pricing is quite low.

    "I think Indian and Chinese companies will still be competitive (with tariffs)," he added.

    "Everybody's waiting and watching," Prasad added.

    North America, which is predominantly US contributed about 46.5% of Dr Reddy's overall revenues of Rs. 27,916.4 crore in FY24.

    In 2024, India exported drugs worth around $8.73 billion to the US — about 31 percent of its total pharma exports. While the Trump administration is yet to come out with finer details of the proposed tariffs, but shares of companies like Dr Reddy's with huge exposure to US market have fallen by 6% in last one week.

    Currently, Indian companies exporting to the US face almost zero import duty. India, on other hand, imposes about 10 percent tax on pharma imports from the US.

    Shares of Dr Reddy's declined 3.28% on BSE to end at Rs 1126.55 apiece on Tuesday, while the benchmark Sensex gained 0.20% to close at 74,602.12 points

    Viswanath Pilla
    Viswanath Pilla is a business journalist with 16 years of reporting experience. Based in Mumbai, Pilla covers pharma, healthcare and infrastructure sectors for Moneycontrol.
    first published: Feb 25, 2025 08:39 pm

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