China's huge vaccine manufacturing capacities are posing a major threat to India's dominance in the global vaccine market, the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) warned.

PV Appaji, director general of Pharmexcil said on Wednesday that India would lose its supremacy in the global vaccine market unless the government comes forward to help the domestic vaccine makers.

Speaking on the topic, Appaji said, "China has come up with much larger capacity units which are a big worry for the entrepreneur driven Indian vaccine sector."

He urged that government to come forward to help domestic vaccine manufacturers with capacity building by providing them with adequate power supply, infrastructure and funds at affordable interest rates to enable the domestic industry to meet the Chinese challenge.

He also pointed out the ongoing power shortages for the industry in Andhra Pradesh. He said that power crisis in the state had pushed the pharma units' operating costs up by more than 5 per cent, which was just unaffordable for the small & medium units.

The Pharmexcil Director General also said that Latin America and Africa had been identified as new exports markets for Indian pharma industry.

At present, India's low-cost vaccine industry exports vaccines to as many as 150 countries and meets 40-70 per cent of World Health Organization's demand for DPT and BCG vaccines and 90 per cent demand for measles vaccines.