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
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
