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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →A 2024 investigation reported that at least 22 of 35 pharmaceutical companies that bought electoral bonds donated to parties governing states where those firms manufactured medicines. The pattern points to the importance companies may place on state-level approvals and enforcement, but it does not prove that a donation bought a regulatory decision or other favor.
What the Rs 945 crore figure covers
Project Electoral Bond reported that 35 pharmaceutical companies bought electoral bonds worth Rs 945 crore. It found that at least 22 of those companies donated to parties ruling states where they produced medicines. That is the investigation’s reported pattern; it does not mean that every rupee in the Rs 945 crore total went to a party governing a state where the donor had a plant. The report does not give a single total for donations matching that specific state-and-manufacturing relationship. Project Electoral Bond’s investigation was published by Scroll.in on 27 March 2024.
Which parties received reported donations from drug makers?
| Party | Amount reported | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) | Rs 394 crore | Received from drug makers, according to the 2024 investigation. |
| Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) | Rs 328.5 crore | Received from 14 pharmaceutical companies, according to the investigation. A 2025 academic article also reports this amount from 14 pharma firms. |
| Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) | Rs 25.5 crore | Received from four drug firms; the investigation described this as nearly 70% of the party’s total electoral-bond receipts. |
These are source-specific reported figures, not a complete breakdown of all recipients or a reconciliation of every donation against the state where a company operated. The 2025 article, “Behind the curtain: unravelling corruption in the electoral bonds scheme,” gives a different aggregate for the pharma sector: Rs 800 crore to parties in states with pharmaceutical manufacturing units from 37 companies. It does not reconcile that figure with the 2024 investigation’s Rs 945 crore from 35 companies, so the totals should not be combined or treated as directly comparable. Both sources report Rs 328.5 crore from 14 pharma firms to BRS.
Why a company might care which party governs a manufacturing state
The investigation’s proposed explanation is that state governments matter to pharmaceutical manufacturers beyond the general business climate. Dhanuraj D, founder and chairman of the Centre for Public Policy Research, told the investigators: “Local government approvals are required to establish the big pharma units.” He also said local opposition can arise over pollution concerns or objections from nearby residents, and that companies may need state support in responding to it.
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Drug-quality enforcement is another part of the state-level context described in the investigation. KL Sharma, a former joint secretary in the Union Health Ministry, said that if regulators “play by the book,” action for violations can be stringent, while adding that “political interference can play a role.” Those comments offer an expert explanation for why state political relationships may matter to companies. They are not evidence that a recipient party intervened in any named inspection, notice, approval or enforcement decision.
What the company examples show—and what they do not
The investigation linked company donations with locations of manufacturing plants and also described regulatory scrutiny or other official events in several cases. The reported sequences can raise questions about political and business relationships, but timing or proximity alone cannot establish why a donation was made or whether it affected official action.
Micro Labs
The investigation said Micro Labs was headquartered in Karnataka and had a large plant in Sikkim. Its largest reported bond donation, Rs 7 crore, went to SKM, which governed Sikkim. The report also recorded Rs 6 crore to the BJP in October 2022, four months after Income Tax Department raids on manufacturing units; it noted that the BJP also governed Karnataka at the time. The sequence and state connections are reported facts, not proof that a raid prompted a donation or that a donation influenced government action.
Torrent Pharma
The investigation reported Rs 77.5 crore in bond donations by Torrent Pharma, including Rs 61 crore to the BJP, and described earlier FDA and state-regulator events. It also reported a Rs 7 crore donation to SKM in October 2023. The available account establishes these reported amounts and chronology, not an exchange between the company and a party.
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According to the investigation, Dr Reddy’s bought Rs 21 crore in bonds on 17 November 2023, four days after an Income Tax raid on an employee in a broader corruption probe. The report said Rs 10 crore went to the BJP and Rs 11 crore to Congress. The reported timing does not establish that the raid caused the purchase or that the donations affected the probe.
Hetero and MSN Group
The investigation reported that Hetero bought Rs 137.5 crore in bonds: Rs 117.5 crore went to BRS, Rs 15 crore to the BJP and Rs 5 crore to Congress. It also discussed state drug-quality notices to the group. For MSN Group, it reported Rs 40 crore in bond purchases, a family connection between a group director and a BRS MP, and a Telangana land auction followed by donations. These reported associations and events do not, by themselves, establish a corrupt bargain or a regulatory intervention.
Zydus Healthcare
The investigation described a substandard remdesivir batch identified by Bihar’s regulator and donations by Zydus Healthcare to the BJP and Congress. It did not establish that donations caused the regulator’s action or any failure to act.
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The amounts describe different things: company purchases of bonds, party receipts, or donations associated with manufacturing-state relationships. A company’s bond purchase is not automatically the same as an amount received by a particular party, and the 22-company finding is a count of firms, not a rupee total for those state-linked donations.
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The 2025 academic article says the Supreme Court struck down the electoral-bond scheme as unconstitutional on 15 February 2024 and ordered disclosure of purchaser and redemption information. It says the State Bank of India supplied the information to the Election Commission for public release. The article identifies Election Commission disclosures as the underlying bond data for its analysis and says its processed dataset was accessed through ADR’s MyNeta. It also notes limitations, including the use of secondary sources for particular case studies. The two published pharma-sector aggregates remain unreconciled in the sources cited here.
The central distinction is between a pattern and proof of a transaction for influence. The reported concentration of donations among parties governing manufacturing states, alongside expert accounts of approvals and enforcement, makes the state-level connection relevant. It does not establish that a company paid for a specific approval, that a party protected a donor, or that a regulator changed course because of a donation.
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