Indian pharmaceutical industry has been depending heavily on generic exports for its profitability and growth from mid nineties. Most large companies have been reporting huge profits mainly on account of their exports to the US and European countries. Those good times of Indian pharma companies did not last long. Margins from pharmaceutical exports to these markets started declining towards the end of 2004. The export figures available from the Pharmexcil clearly showed this trend. Out of the 25 importing countries, the pharmaceutical export to almost 18 countries showed a drop since January 2009. The generic competition within the US and European markets from 2006 has been mainly responsible for this. In 2007-2008, the competition aggravated further eroding the overall profitability of Indian companies. The worst blow came when the US FDA banned the import of 31 drugs of Ranbaxy in September 2008 for not maintaining quality norms in its two approved manufacturing facilities in India. Since then, imports of pharmaceuticals from India came also under stringent scrutiny by the US and European regulatory authorities

Then started the seizures of Indian pharmaceutical products at European ports by the customs authorities under anti counterfeiting laws. These consignments were getting seized on charges of patent law violation as some of these drugs are patented in Europe. Now, the Indian companies are finding it difficult to export pharmaceuticals to Latin America and African countries. The strong lobby of multinational companies seems to have launched a campaign against India's generic exports to African countries as that has started hitting the export of branded products of multinational drug companies. The MNC lobby has somehow convinced African nations to change the rules to disallow imports of generic drugs into their countries. The countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda have already brought in anti-counterfeiting legislations to block generic imports from India at the behest of multinational lobby. Last week, India's Commerce and Industry Minister, Anand Sharma, has been to Kenya and he did apprise the Kenyan Prime Minister, Raila Odinga and the governments of other African nations about the issue. It is a fact that the generic products from India are the best in terms of global standards with India having the largest number of US FDA approved manufacturing facilities outside the US. The policy followed by the African nations at the behest of MNCs could have long-term implications not just for them but for the entire developing world. Branded life-saving medicines are unaffordable for the poor in Africa, Asia and South America as their prices are kept high by MNC cartels. With not much progress emerging from the ongoing talks at ministerial and at officials' levels on this matter, an intervention by the prime minister at the time of proposed free trade agreement (FTA) with European Union can only bring some relief to the Indian pharmaceutical exporters. India also needs to be extremely cautious before it sign up the Intellectual Property provisions demanded by the EU in FTA as that could further reduce the country's ability to provide affordable medicines to world.