New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS): India manufactured 400 cr vaccines in the last one year -- half of the total vaccines developed and distributed globally, said Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava.

Addressing the annual India Leadership Summit 2024, organised by the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, Srivastava said that India has emerged as a global leader in pharmaceuticals. The country is the third-largest producer and a key supplier of generic medicines.

The Health Secretary said that India manufactured half of all vaccines that were distributed across the globe.

“In the last one year alone, of the 800 crore vaccine doses manufactured and distributed across the world, 400 crore doses were manufactured in India,” she noted.

Srivastava added that besides supporting healthcare systems worldwide, India has also made a notable contribution to the US healthcare system.

"India has the highest number -- 25 per cent of the total number -- of US FDA-approved pharmaceutical plants outside of the US,” she said. The country also leads in vaccine production, with a significant share of global manufacturing, underscoring its role as the "pharmacy of the world", she said.

Further, she noted that India has reformed medical education to ensure a robust healthcare system. The reforms include the replacement of outdated regulatory frameworks with the National Medical Commission Act and related laws.

This has not only led to a significant increase in medical and nursing college numbers and enrollment but has also addressed disparities in healthcare professional availability.

This is because of continuous efforts by the government which has progressively improved the quality, scale, and cost-effectiveness of healthcare in India, Srivastava said.

"It is a testament to our expanded healthcare services that the out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE), which is borne entirely by the households, has declined by 25 percentage points as a share of total health expenditure between 2013-2014 and 2021-2022," she said.