India’s billion dollar pharma industry has a waste problem

1. Kamala Thiagarajan, freelance journalist

1. Tamil Nadu, India

1. kamala.thiagarajan{at}gmail.com

Increasing amounts of pharmaceutical waste from both patients and industry are creating antimicrobial resistance and other health risks. Kamala Thiagarajan reports

In January 2022 farmers in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, in the southern Indian state of Telangana, warned that pollution from pharmaceutical and chemical companies was affecting the fields at Anthammagudem, which supply most of the vegetables sold in the state capital Hyderabad.

The farmers filed complaints with India’s National Human Rights Commission and the state’s pollution control board.1 The National Green Tribunal, a judicial body that rules over environmental cases across the country, called for a soil analysis. It found that soil, surface water, and groundwater in the area were replete with residue from drugs including antacids, antifungals, and anti-allergenics.

The same year an investigation by Toxic Links, a New Delhi based environmental research and policy advocacy, raised concerns over antibiotic residues found in river water samples across India,2 particularly in four key rivers—the Cooum in Chennai, the Gomti (Lucknow), the Yamuna (New Delhi), and the Zuari (Goa).3 Twelve water samples were collected from rivers in different regions. Toxic Links detected substantial concentrations of three antibiotics (ofloxacin, norfloxacin, and sulfamethoxazole) in these rivers. This raised concerns that antibiotic residues could add to the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance and that nationwide surveillance was needed.

India is home to over 3000 pharmaceutical companies with 10 500 manufacturing units. It has the highest number of generic drug manufacturing plants approved by the US Food and Drug Administration outside of North America, its biggest export destination. India’s pharmaceutical sector supplies drugs to over 200 countries, making it one of the nation’s most successful industries, valued at $65bn in 2024 and expected to grow to $130bn by 2030.

Joakim Larsson, professor of environmental pharmacology at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and an adviser …

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