India maintained a lead in pharmaceutical exports over China in 2015, the country's commerce ministry said in a statement.

"India's pharmaceutical exports continued its lead over China in 2015 ... India maintains its supremacy over China in pharmaceuticals," the ministry said in a statement.

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Although India's pharma export grew by only 7.55 percent year on year to $12.54 billion in 2015 from $11.66 billion in 2014, it is still ahead of China with a 5.63 percent growth to $6.94 billion from $6.59 billion over the same period.

"India moved ahead of China in all important markets such as the US, Africa and the European Union," it continued.

India's exports to the United States grew by nearly a quarter (23.4 percent) to $474 billion in 2016, while China's exports to the US only jumped by 15 percent to $1.34 billion.

Aside from the United States, India also managed to beat China in terms of growth in the European Union and Africa with $1.5 billion and $3.04 billion, respectively. On the other hand, China reported declining trend in both markets.

Despite India's win over China, India is still dependent on China for the import of APIs, which are vital raw materials needed for medicines. The Indian government and agencies have expressed concern over India's continued dependence on China for APIs.

In related news, India's pharmaceutical exports are poised to be worth $20 billion by 2020, up by $6 billion from 2016, a joint research by Assocham and TechSci revealed.

However, the export growth may be chopped down to almost half - from 15 percent compounded annual growth rate between 2010 and 2014 to eight percent from 2015 to 2020 - because of the delay in regulatory approvals in the United States, Russia, Africa, and other locations.

"Consolidation of pharmacy players is leading to an increase in pricing pressures for generic companies existing in the US market which is expected to result in a decline in year-on-year growth of pharmaceutical exports from India over next five years," the research said.

TagsIndia, china, pharmaceutical exports