The Indian government's aggressive campaign to counter the multinational companies' (MNCs) propaganda against the Indian generic drugs in African countries will start on April 24 in Delhi with an interactive 'clarification meeting' between Indian authorities and the diplomats from the African countries. Ambassadors and high commissioners of African countries in India are participating in the meeting.

According to senior officials in the Union commerce ministry, the meeting, part of a series of measures to counter the MNCs propaganda, is an exercise to allay fears among the African countries about the quality of Indian generic drugs. The Indian government wanted the African countries to desist from introducing laws in their countries under which the generic drugs will be treated as counterfeit drugs.

Under the influence of the MNCs propaganda, Kenya and Uganda have recently come out with draft Bills under which even generic drugs 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.

The meeting will discuss the status of Indian pharma and issues related to improvement in bilateral trade between India and African countries. The meeting is being convened to clarify and 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.

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 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.