Brexit to have limited impact on pharma industry: ICRA

New Delhi, Jun 24: Britain's decision to exit the European Union will have a "limited" impact on India's pharma industry, ratings agency ICRA said today.

"The European markets account for 10-13 per cent of total revenues with US being the largest export destination. Accordingly, the impact of GBP and Euro depreciation is likely to be limited," ICRA Ltd Senior VP, Co-head Corporate Sector ratings Subrata Ray said in a statement.

However, given the fact the profitability in the European business has been low vis-a-vis other markets on account of price cuts and shift towards tender market, currency depreciation and any possibility of further austerity measures may impact the attractiveness of the market, he added.

India's total pharma exports in 2015-16 were USD 13 billion. Of these, EU accounted for USD 1.51 billion, UK (USD 469 million) and the US (USD 5.02 billion). As for its overall exports to EU and Britain, they stood at USD 35.35 billion and USD 9.35 billion respectively in 2015-16.

They were at USD 40.28 billion to the US. The UK voted to leave the European Union after 43 years in a historic referendum. Leave won by 52 per cent to 48 per cent votes.

The vote -- which saw an extremely high turnout of around 72 per cent -- reverses the public verdict back in 1975, when the UK voted to remain a member of then European Economic Community, which later became the EU.

PTI