In order to give a boost to the exports to Commonwealth Independent
States (CIS),which has been growing at five per cent during the last
five years, Pharmaceutical Exports Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) is
planning to take more trade delegations to CIS nations according to a
spokesperson of the council.

In the last three to four years,
Pharmexcil has been taking a number of delegations to these countries
covering almost all the CIS nations, he added

At the same time
the government of India is in the process of designing bilateral
business arrangements with countries like Russia and Kazakhstan and also
talks with more countries in the CIS are under consideration to support
the Indian pharma exporters to aggressively win the overseas market.


India and Russia are planning to sign a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) for exploring the possibility of setting up of joint ventures in
pharma and bio-pharma sectors, API and therapeutic specific sectors in
both countries, including jointly setting up of R&D/testing
facilities.

At a meeting between the visiting Russian delegation
led by Russian minister for Industry and Trade, Victor B Khristenko and
the senior officials of the Department of Pharmaceuticals led by
secretary, Mukul Joshi recently, Russia also agreed to exchange of
technical know-how for production of pharma products including bulk
drugs, serums, biosimilars, vaccines etc, participation in setting up of
enterprises for scientific and production capacity.

The two
sides have also agreed on a draft MoU to encourage collaboration in the
areas of trade, industry, joint ventures and R&D in the pharma and
bio-pharma sectors. They have also agreed to exchange of information on
the issues of regulation in the export/import of pharmaceuticals
products including Active Pharmaceuticals Ingredients etc according to
official sources.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed
the issues relating to pharma and bio-pharma sectors including support
to Indian joint ventures for government procurement from Russian side in
terms of market assurance, tax and investment incentives, financial
collaboration, infrastructure and utility services, protection of
investment made by Indian industry, easy repatriation of profits and
other incentives and specific support during construction/establishment
of production facilities in Russia including work force from India etc.

In
the meanwhile an agreement on Russia-India Biotech Network (RIBN) was
recently signed in Andhra Pradesh in the the presence of Chief Minister
K Rosaiah. The agreement was signed by Professor Raif Vasilov,
President, Russian Biotechnology Society and Chief Executive Officer,
Russian Bio-industry Association and Dr B S Bajaj, convener, BioAsia
2011 and secretary, Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA).
RIBN will be a dedicated on-line platform to effectively facilitate
collaboration between the Russian and Indian biotech communities.

The
interested Russian companies will be able to browse through the profile
of their Indian counterparts and interact with them to understand their
activities in detail and vice versa.

The Chief Minister also
officially announced the eighth edition of BioAsia, the global
bio-business forum, to be held from February 21-24, 2011 at India’s
first bio-city, Hyderabad.

BioAsia 2011 will feature three tracks
namely MediAsia, HealthAsia and AgriAsia. The event is expected to
attract a wide range of entrepreneurs including senior executives of
leading biotech companies, business development teams from large and
mid-size pharma companies, eminent scientists from R&D institutions,
universities, investors and other industry experts to explore global
business tie-ups.

At the same time at a recent two day Indo-CIS
Business Meet in Mumbai, officials from the Indian side had announced
proactive steps like setting up warehousing facilities in pharma hubs in
the CIS region and exploring bilateral agreements and reciprocal
recognition of regulatory norms with concerned authorities in this
region.

Addressing a business delegation from the CIS nations,
in a business meet between the Indian pharma and the buyers from 15 CIS
countries organised by Pharmexcil,Ashok Kumar, secretary, Department of
Pharmaceuticals (DoP) said the Indian pharma industry is equipping
itself with global standards in quality of manufacturing and products
and the country, with its strength in generics, has huge opportunities
to be explored in the CIS pharma market.