The task force on pharmaceutical exports under Rajiv Kher, joint secretary in the Union ministry of commerce, has recommended to the government to set up an expert panel to study the potential intermediates that can come back to Indian manufacturing arena from China. The task force had submitted its report to the government recently.

"Government should set up an expert panel to study the potential intermediates that can come back to Indian manufacturing arena. Genuine foreign site inspections, analysis of imported samples of every consignment, in-depth review of regulatory submissions will put Indian industry on par with imports at least in strategic intermediates," the task force in its report said.

The energy and labour costs differential has virtually eroded in the country. In the past intermediate industry migrated to China due to these reasons. India is emerging as a significant supplier of finished APIs and formulations to regulated markets and ROW. China can capture our market with the strength in intermediates if India does not pay attention to building intermediate industry. Every year, several new chemical entities loose patent protection and the corresponding opportunity for several intermediates and finished APIs emerge, the task force said.

The Rajiv task force was constituted by prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh way back in July 2006 to find ways and means to ease the bottlenecks coming in the way of pharmaceutical exporters in the country. Its key recommendations included comprehensive measures for accelerating the growth of generic pharmaceutical industry in the country, enhancing India's R&D, promoting contract manufacturing, drug discovery and clinical trials, Indian System of Medicines and Ayush.

The task force had held several rounds of meetings with all the stakeholders including the pharma industry and the officials before finalising its findings. The task force exclusively on pharam exports was constituted by the PM in the wake of the pharmacy industry making strides in the country during the last some years. There has been an increasing activity in the pharma export front as it has grown by leaps and bounds, especially during the last some years. Today the pharma sector alone contributes about five per cent of the total exports of the country.