Pitted against the multi-pronged propaganda by multinationals and the western countries to choke the Indian generic drugs in the developing world, the Commerce Ministry has launched an aggressive campaign by holding a meeting of Indian ambassadors to different countries and briefing the ambassadors and High Commissioners of African countries on the issue and India's strength.

After holding a meeting of Indian ambassadors as part of the campaign in Hyderabad recently, the Commerce Ministry and Health Ministry officials met diplomats from as many as 30 African countries in Delhi on Friday, alerting them against the 'backdoor' ploys by the MNCs in developing countries to deny access to affordable medicines by blocking Indian generics.

"We will sensitise more countries especially in the region of Africa and send delegations to those countries to convince the authorities and the people about the quality, safety and efficacy of Indian medicines. We are also sending a high-level delegation to the forthcoming meeting of health ministers of African nations," commerce secretary G K Pillai told Pharmabiz on the sidelines of the meeting, organised by Pharmexcil.

The meeting was attended by senior officials from both the commerce and health ministries to clear the doubts of diplomats including ambassadors. DCGI Dr Surinder Singh gave a detailed presentation on the quality checks, regulations, and protocols prevailing in the country while Pharmexcil executive director Dr P V Appaji presented detailed report on Indian pharma industry and its exports to different countries.

"This meeting is to sensitise you on some of the events which have taken place recently and which if unchecked can be disastrous in the long term for poor people in developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America," Pillai said in his keynote address.

"The first set of events concerns a series of detentions and seizures by the customs authorities of European Union nations, particularly of Netherlands, of generic pharma products exported from India to countries in Latin America and Africa on the grounds that these products were patented in Europe. But no consideration was given that it was destined to countries in Latin America and Africa where they were not patented," he said.

"In a planned and coordinated, but subtle manner large multinationals through instrumentality of their governments and encouraged by relative lack of understanding and compulsions of the developing country requirements are trying to create an environment of confusion and suspicion," he said, asking the African nations to be aware of these designs and rise above the challenge.

The diplomats were also briefed about the campaign by different quarters on counterfeit drugs and attempts to equate Indian generics as counterfeit. The health ministry officials also explained how the IMPACT was trying to redefine the definition of counterfeit drugs and how the developing countries tried to thwart.

Dr Appaji told Pharmabiz that recently a similar meeting was held in Hyderabad in which 22 Indian ambassadors to different countries took part and the commerce ministry and health ministry officials briefed them about propaganda of the multinationals in the developed countries and explained about the steps India should initiate in other countries through the respective diplomatic missions.