A major Russian-Indian pharmaceutical plant will be built in the Kaluga Region, announced Russian President Vladimir Putin following talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
“In accordance with a commercial agreement signed during the visit, a major Russian-Indian pharmaceutical plant will be built in the Kaluga Region, and the production of high-quality anti-cancer medicines using advanced Indian technologies will commence,” stated Putin. He did not provide further details of the project.
India is one of the largest importers of medicines to the Russian market, according to Nikolai Bespalov, Director of Development at the analytical company RNC Pharma. He noted that the Indian pharmaceutical industry has long been focused on generic versions of relatively inexpensive drugs, “in a wide range and large quantities”.
Data from RNC Pharma shows that supplies of medicines from India to Russia amounted to 196.3 million packages from January to August 2025, 284.7 million for the whole of 2024, 285.9 million in 2023, and 285.6 million in 2022. This year, products from India accounted for 5.3% of the physical volume and about 3.2% of the monetary volume of the Russian market—this refers to drugs manufactured in India. Several Indian companies have localized production in Russia, and their drugs are counted as Russian in the statistics.
On the eve of the visit, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko reported that approximately 10% of drugs registered in Russia are Indian. “To date, this number in absolute figures amounts to about 1,800 items,” the minister said.
As previously reported by GxP News, India—fearing potential increases in U.S. import duties on pharmaceutical products, its primary export market—is considering boosting supplies to other countries, primarily Russia, the Netherlands, and Brazil.
