Pharma starting materials and intermediates

Key starting materials and drug intermediates: the chemical building blocks behind every API, and the step where India depends most on China.

Fine chemicals · Pharmaceutical · No. 93

• Product family
• Feedstock: Oil, gas or coal
• not published globally
• HS 2933, 2934

The weakest link in India's medicine supply is not the pill but the first chemical building block, mostly made in China.

Chart: Illustration: Pharma starting materials and intermediates

Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Chemical KSMs come from benzene and ammonia through nitration and hydrogenation, needing about 1.1 t of nitrobenzene per tonne of para-aminophenol; antibiotics start from fermentation.

Three things to know

1. Aurobindo's Lyfius plant at Kakinada, opened in 2024, can make 15,000 t a year of penicillin G, the root of beta-lactam antibiotics.
2. Meghmani's 13,500 t a year para-aminophenol plant supplies the key building block for paracetamol.
3. In January 2026 India set minimum import prices, including Rs 3,405/kg for 6-APA, for one year.

The journey

1. 1 Basic chemicalsBenzene, phenol, nitrobenzene, ammonia, cyanamide
2. 2 Simple intermediatesNitrated, chlorinated, hydrogenated aromatics
3. 3 Starting materialRegistered block where GMP control begins
4. 4 Drug intermediatesBuilt up step by step towards API
5. 5 APIsParacetamol, metformin, antibiotics, sartans

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