As the delegations of National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) and Pharmexcil comprising of technical experts are going to attend the CPhI China, the industry has urged the government to make use of the occasion to study the technical and marketing advantage of China vis-à-vis Indian industry, in line with the long standing demand of the small and medium sectors.

The SME sector said the technical experts should study in which areas the Chinese technology were superior to India and suggest strategies to help the SME sector improve as the officers are from the Government-backed agencies and indirectly utilizing the money from the treasury. Dr Ashwini Vig and Dr AK Bansal of NIPER and Dr Appaji of Pharmexcil are going for the event to be held in China from June 23.

SME Pharma Industries Confederation (SPIC) in a letter to Pharma Secretary Ashok Kumar said the officers be directed to focus their visit on some crucial points like assessing the strength and advantages of Chinese industry. SPIC has been requesting since February, 2008 to the Government to take counter measures to face the continuous rise of imports of drugs from China into India. "The imports had risen from Rs 908 crore in 2004-2005 to Rs 2124 crore in 2006-2007 and badly hit our SME pharma bulk drug industry and the formulation industry, especially in exports," the letter said.

The comparative prices of the various API and formulations as per essential list of India, their export prices, the reasons for Chinese export of B- complex tablets and Progesterone injections at half the price of export of Indian alternatives, comparative price of inputs like energy, manpower, solvents, land, infrastructure, banking lending rates, terms and logistic support cost to the pharmaceutical industry in China vis- vis India may also be assessed, the letter said.

Besides studying the regulatory mechanism, the delegation can also study the event itself so that India could better organize the proposed pharma summit under the aegis of the pharma department in Mumbai.

"They should submit a comparative study of quality, prices of Chinese pharmaceutical machinery .packing material and laboratory equipment, laboratory chemicals, etc displayed in the exhibition vis-vis Indian prices. They should also study about the training programme needed to be conducted for SME sector to be implemented by NIPER & Pharmexcil to improve Indian capabilities in the SME pharma sector," the letter said, adding that it would help the department also in formulating the policies in future and eclipse Chinese advantage in many sectors.