As many as 100 Indian companies have expressed keen interest to associate with the proposed cooperative warehouse facility in Nigeria which is expected to boost the Indian pharmaceutical exports targeting the West African region.

The facility, planned by the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) in association with Sankil Pharmaceutical, a local pharmaceutical business agency in Nigeria, is expected to be functional in the near future.

“Around 100 Indian companies have extended support to the facility and make use of the warehouse.  The Pharmexcil will bear 75 per cent of the rent for the first three years,” according to Pharmexcil chairman Ashutosh Gupta.

Apart from warehouse facility, the Pharmexcil was also taking other steps like mutual recognition of Indian pharmacopoeia with some African countries, as part of the measures to promote exports from India, officials of the council said.

The Nigerian facility will be a kind of pilot-project and the success of the same will pave way for similar facilities in other African countries and Latin America. In 2013, the Indian commerce ministry had revealed a plan to help the pharmaceutical exporters by setting up common warehouse facilities in some foreign countries so that small and medium scale drug makers can cut down on their expenses. The ministry had collected data from the industry on the possible steps to help the exporters and it was revealed that one of the difficulties faced by the SMEs was huge expenditure on using warehouses abroad.

The proposed premises where the warehousing facility will be set up has already been approved by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) of Nigeria and it is well suited for storing active pharmaceutical ingredients or APIs and chemicals. The council is also expecting similar approval from NAFDAC to even store the pharmaceutical formulations or any other pharma related material at the facility.

Sankil Pharma will act as a custodian of the goods stored in the warehousing facility. The company will assist the members in all aspects and will arrange for releasing the consignments from customs, store in the warehouse, and dispatch to customers according to instructions of the companies using the facility. Additional facilities like cold storage and extra space will be taken care of by Sankil Pharma and the company will also assist the members in getting their products registered with NAFDAC, if required.