Active pharmaceutical ingredient
Also called: API, Bulk drug · Topic: Manufacturing Industries of India: Location and Distribution · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
An active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) is the chemical in a medicine that actually treats the illness. It is also called a bulk drug. A tablet or syrup also contains other substances that give it shape, taste or colour, but only the API does the healing work. APIs are made in chemical plants from raw chemicals called key starting materials (KSMs). Medicine makers then turn the API into finished tablets, capsules or injections.
APIs matter because India's large generic medicine industry depends heavily on imported APIs. In FY 2024-25, India imported APIs, bulk drugs and drug intermediates worth about USD 4.35 billion. China supplied about 73.7% of these imports. Depending so much on one country is a risk, because supplies can stop and prices can jump suddenly.
Example
The Bulk Drug Parks scheme was approved in 2020 to make more APIs inside India. One of its three parks is at Jambusar in Bharuch district, Gujarat, on the western coast. It gets shared facilities such as effluent treatment, power, water and testing labs. The other two parks are in Una (Himachal Pradesh) and Andhra Pradesh.
Don't confuse with
- Formulation: the finished medicine (a tablet, capsule or syrup) made by mixing the API with other substances. The API is only the active chemical inside it.
- Key starting material (KSM): the raw chemical used to make an API. It comes one step earlier in the supply chain.