Pharma Expo 2003, the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) first flagship International Exhibition & Conference for the Indian pharmaceutical industry is targeting participation from 175 exhibitors across the pharmaceutical industry and attendance from 10,000 participants, said Darryl Dasilva, Deputy Director, CII (western region). The exhibition will be held from November 14-17, 2003 at the NSE Exhibition Complex, Mumbai.
Inviting participation from the industry, Habil Khorakhiwala, Chairman, Pharma Expo 2003 & Chairman, Wockhardt, said "The Indian pharmaceutical industry has shown a vibrant growth over the last decade with over 20,000 registered units. The current domestic pharmaceutical industry sales are in the region of $ 3.9 billion with prospects for healthy growth. Exports have also been rising at around 30 per cent CAGR over the last five years with a shift towards value added formulations from comparatively low value drugs. With liberalization of economic policies and liberalized business climate, a large number of international pharma majors are looking to enter the country or increase their presence in their existing Indian subsidiaries, setting up new plants and expanding existing facilities.
Indian pharmaceutical industry is at the threshold of tremendous growth in all aspects like manufacturing, machinery, R&D and exports. Seeing Indian manufacturer's quality, MNCs have started sourcing quality products at relatively lower price from here. Indian pharma machinery manufacturers are succeeding in tapping new global markets every year. Indian pharma majors like Ranbaxy, Dr. Reddy's Labs and Wockhardt have already showed their skill in high-end pharma research. There could be no better example other than Ranbaxy's recent tie up with GSK in this regard. Pharmaceutical exports are also growing at a CAGR of 30 per cent over the past five years. Post-2005 India is also poised to respect the IPR concerns of MNCs by making the patent laws more stringent.
"All these factors indicate it is the right time to start an exhibition of this repute. From now on CII will be conducting similar exhibitions once every two years at different venues across the country. CII also intends to participate and promote its pharma exhibitions in major international exhibitions," he added.
Plant and equipments for pharma production, infrastructure and accessories, packaging machinery and materials, biotechnology, lab and analytical equipments, process control instrumentation, effluent treatment and waste management systems, refrigeration, cold and clean rooms, bulk drugs, intermediaries, excipients and additives, and technical books and journals would be some of the areas where the exhibitors would be displaying their skills.
CEOs and top executives, senior R&D scientists, pharmacists, biotech specialists, academicians, pharma consultants, and academicians from medical and pharmacy colleges are expected to be the key visitors at the event.
The parallel international conference will feature presentations on applications of new emerging technology as well as current trends and opportunities in the Indian pharma industry. This conference will enhance the synergy effect and attract top-level professionals from industry, thus improving the technology focus, content and visitor profile of the event.