The Netherlands is aiming to increase imports of Indian generic drugs into the country, as it looks to diversify its portfolio and avoid supply constraints, Dutch government officials and industry experts said at an event on Friday.
India, popularly referred to as the ‘pharmacy of the world, exported $616 million worth of drugs in fiscal year 2025 to the Netherlands, making it India’s seventh largest export market.
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The biggest market for India is the U.S., where tariff concerns linger. India mostly exports generic drugs that are cheaper versions of popular innovative drugs.
“The Netherlands has a generic uptake of 80% for annual prescriptions… Four out of 5 medicines going to patients are generic drugs,” Kayleigh van Winssen, deputy director of pharmaceutical affairs at the Netherlands ministry of health, said at the International Pharmaceutical Exhibition in New Delhi.
There are over 22,000 medicines authorized for use in the Netherlands, she noted.
The European nation encouraged Indian drug manufacturers to increase exports to the Netherlands and across therapy areas.
The Netherlands delegation said at the event that the country is looking to diversify its portfolio and reduce dependence on single drug suppliers or those with extremely high market share.
There has been a 50% drop in generic medicine registrations in the last five years, with fewer generic products in the market, according to Leon Tinke, managing director of BENU, one of the largest pharmacy chains in the Netherlands.
Under an existing agreement between India and the Netherlands, the countries have been collaborating to train inspectors to learn about the regulatory process.
“Indian inspectors (are) being trained in the Netherlands from both the national and state level…We already had a training in January and other trainings are being lined up,” said Winssen.
“We are also thinking about how we can provide companies with better information,” she said.
