The international buyer-seller meet (BSM) organised by the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) last week in Chennai as part of the pharma trade exhibition (Pharmac South) has evoked good response and helped the pharmaceutical manufacturers in south India establish a direct link with buyers from ASEAN and Gulf countries.

The two-day meet, inaugurated by Suthamshu Pande, joint secretary, ministry of commerce, on July 3 at Chennai Trade Centre, was organised by the Tamil Nadu branch of the Indian Drugs Manufacturers' Association (IDMA) in association with Pharmexcil. The BSM has encouraged the small scale pharmaceutical companies in the southern states, especially from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, to become potential exporters to the ASEAN nations from where buyers have come to Chennai to interact with the local manufacturers.

The foreign buyers attended the meet told Pharmabiz that they could achieve more business contracts than what they had expected. The buyer-seller meet and trade exhibition was visited by the health ministry officials from Timor Leste, a member of ASEAN, under the leadership of the country’s vice-minister of health, Dr. Ana Isabel de Fatima Sousa Soares. The minister’s accompanying official group included the country’s head of pharmacy, Jonia Lourenca Nunes Brites da Cruz.

Pharmexcil has been organising various programmes including international buyer-seller meets to help manufacturers of formulations and APIs market their products and promote exports, said its director general Dr. P.V Appaji. He said the buyer-seller meet held in Chennai as part of Pharmac South is an indication of export growth from south Indian pharma industry. Ten potential buyers from Cambodia, Laos, Timor Leste, Malaysia and from UAE were present at the meeting.

For generating more export opportunities for Indian manufacturers, Pharmexcil will organise a two-day Expo-cum-BSM in the Latin American country, Peru, in August this year. Dr. Appaji said Peru has emerged as very attractive market for APIs and formulations. The Council has been making all efforts in Peru over the last few years to create opportunities for Indian companies. From July 23-26, the Council organises the Indo-Global Pharma Expo & Summit in Hyderabad.

A foreign buyer from Laos, Dr. Somphone Phonh Axa, managing director of Palamy Pharma, while interacting with Pharmabiz said the import of pharmaceuticals from India to his country will increase by 20 per cent next year. Seventy per cent of the total requirement of medicines in Laos is imported, out of which India’s share is only ten per cent. He said there is very big scope for Indian pharmaceutical companies to export their products to Laos as the people there prefer Indian made drugs, both allopathic and traditional.

An Indian origin marketer from Cambodia, Ashuthosh Garg, managing director of Pluton Lifesciences Ltd, said the pharmaceutical companies from India can reap business advantages from the pharma market of Cambodia because the local government is not taking any supporting step to promote pharma industry there. He said the Cambodian government as well as the people of the country prefer imported drugs.

To a question he said Cambodia is following the ASEAN guidelines for regulating the drugs supply.