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Mohan Padmanabhan

"The top pharma majors like Ranbaxy and Cipla can easily match the quality of the MNC sources, and for a country like Africa, this was an opportunity."

Kolkata , Nov. 18

THE second India-Africa Health Summit, co-sponsored by the Department of Commerce, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Indian pharmaceuticals sector, beginning in Mumbai tomorrow, is expected to be a win-win situation for drug exports to Africa.

Talking to Business Line, Mr S. Ramasundaram, Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce, said the first summit, also in Mumbai, in September 2001 was a success in terms of export opportunities for Indian drugs manufacturers, and the prospects of collaboration with African countries like Nigeria in the area of pharmaceuticals and health have now been enhanced.

Citing the case of a single North African country, he said out of its total drug imports of $ 500 million, India was importing some $ 499 million worth of items from MNC sources and only $ 1 million worth of products from India.

As an aftermath of this first health summit, this country has now understood that the same quantity of pharma products, with matching quality, could be imported from India at much lower cost, that is within $ 100 million, leaving the balance for use on other essential imports.

The top pharma majors in India like Ranbaxy and Cipla can easily match the quality of the MNC sources, and for a country like Africa, this was a good opportunity, he added.

Mr Ramasundaram informed that the second summit was the result of an active demand from the participant countries, and huge participation from the Indian pharmaceutical companies was expected, going by the rush for registrations. Consequently, this time around, the pharma sector has agreed to take care of 75 per cent of the costs of holding such an international meet.

Pointing out that the Indian pharmaceutical exports to Africa during 2002-03 was only a modest $ 290 million, against a total African pharma imports of $ 5 billion (a mere 2 per cent share), he said the potential here was huge. He said the objective was to take Indian pharma exports to Africa to $ 1 billion by 2007, and such summits would surely pave the way for achieving this feat. Nigeria imports pharma products from India to the tune of $ 90 million.

Asked on the product specifics, he said Indian companies like Ranbaxy, Cipla, Aurobindo Pharma and Hetero could score heavily in the export of anti-retro virals (ARVs) to Africa, as there was no competition for these drugs from any other Asian country, including China.

Some 15 African nations are participating in the summit, and presentations are being made by African health ministers. The summit will be inaugurated by Mr S.B. Mookherjee, Union Minister of State for Commerce & Industry.

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