Despite the tough international regulatory approval mandated by certain West Asian countries, the Indian firms find the markets in the region more open and lucrative. According to the experts on foreign trade with Pharmaceutical Exports Promotion Council (Pharmexcil), countries in the West Asia insist on high regulatory standards. As these countries do not have required resources to test and qualify the drugs that are suitable to the region, they welcome the countries, which have secured approvals by the international regulatory bodies. If the companies have got approvals from the highly regulated bodies, like the US FDA, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) of UK, Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) of Australia and European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM), they can with out any trouble enter into the pharmaceutical industry in West Asia, the experts added.
'This is a logical solution as there is no point in re-testing the already approved drugs and medicines by US FDA. Even if any of the countries in that region approves the drug, the same would be accepted by other countries,' the experts noted. The priority should be to get at least a single clearance from any of the West Asian countries along with US FDA and other approvals, they added.
Since Indian pharmaceutical players meet the standards set by the international quality and regulatory agencies, it is easy for the Indian companies to venture into the West Asian pharma market. India can also boost of more than 70 odd API manufacturing units with US FDA approvals.
As far as pharmaceutical exports to West Asian region is concerned, the country's export to Turkey tops the chart with Rs 373.29 crore as of January 2007, compared to Rs 426.21 in 2005-06, while it's export to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) stands at Rs 238.22 crore, down from Rs.319.44 crore in 2005-2006. Next market for Indian players is Israel with Rs 373.57 crore exports as on January 2007, up from Rs. 310.33 crore in 2005-06.
As of January 2007, India's export to Jordan stand at Rs 72.95 crore, compared to Rs.112.73 crore in last year, while its exports to Syria amounts to Rs 83.51 crore, down from Rs 94.32 crore in 2005-06. The country's export to Yemen Republic totals Rs. 72.64 crore, compared to Rs 71.96 crore in the previous year, while export to Saudi Arabia stands at Rs.54.71 crore, down from Rs 50.44 crore in 2005-06. India's export to other West Asian countries as of January 2007 stand at Iraq Rs.39.11 crore (Rs.49 crore), Cyprus Rs.36.12 crore (Rs.29.60 crore), Oman Rs.24.30 crore (Rs.28.57 core), Lebanon Rs.6.93 core (Rs.10.08 crore), Georgia Rs.7.94 crore (Rs.7.89 crore), Kuwait Rs.7.33 core (Rs.6.58 crore), Bahrain Rs.5.48 crore (Rs.5.63 crore), Qatar Rs.2.78 crore (Rs.2.70 crore) and Armenia Rs.1.72 crore (Rs.1.98 crore).
In last three years there has been a significant increase in exports to Turkey, UAE, Syria, Yemen Republic, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Georgia, Kuwait, and Armenia with the numbers looking at north. On the other hand there is a fluctuation in the exports to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Oman and Bahrain. The export to Qatar stood at Rs. 43.59 crore in 2003-04 from it declined to just Rs.1.38 crore in 2004-05 and again picked up in 2005-06 with Rs.2.70 core exports.