Concerned over the propaganda unleashed by the MNCs against the Indian generic drugs in African countries, the Union commerce ministry has called a meeting of all the Ambassadors and High Commissioners of African countries in India on April 24 to clarify the Indian position on the issue. The meeting will discuss the status of Indian pharma and issues related to improvement in bilateral trade between India and African countries. DCGI Dr Surinder Singh will make a presentation in the meeting.

The meeting is being convened to clarify and also to convince the African countries how the generic drugs are being manufactured in India. The Indian government wanted to show them the quality parameters which a pharma company has to follow before manufacturing a generic drug in India. The government and the industry will showcase in the meeting the quality of generic drugs being manufactured by Indian pharma companies. DCGI will make a detailed presentation on the status of Indian pharma industry and the generic drugs being manufactured in India.

Senior government officials including secretary in the union commerce ministry, GK Pillai and joint secretary Rajiv Kher, major Indian drug exporters to African countries and industry captains will be attending the meeting on April 24 in Delhi.

The meeting is part of the Indian government's campaign to counter the propaganda unleashed by the MNCs against the Indian generic drugs in African countries. The MNCs are learnt to have spread the rumours in the African countries that the Indian generic drugs are spurious drugs and only patented drugs are good for consumption. Besides, the MNCs have also started a campaign in the African countries confusing them of spurious drugs with counterfeit drugs. While the spurious drugs are substandard drugs, counterfeiting is an issue associated with patenting and trademark.

Influenced by the MNC propaganda, Kenya and Uganda have recently come out with draft Bills under which drugs patented anywhere in the world will be classified as counterfeit drugs. Indian officials are worried that apart from Kenya and Uganda, other African countries are also intending to follow the same path which will put the Indian pharma industry in great difficulty as several Indian companies are exporting generic drugs to several African countries.