Keen on building confidence of the overseas regulators and global investors on the Indian drug regulatory mechanism, the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) is organising a meeting with the drugs controller general of India (DCGI) on January 11 in Gujarat. The meeting will be convened under the chairmanship of Sudhanshu Pandey who is joint secretary at the ministry of commerce with focus on addressing regulatory concerns and challenges of exporters.

Apart from taking up export related queries, the Council also plans to clarify and address the apprehensions of the stakeholders on the reliability and the competence of the Indian drug regulators. This meeting specifically targets to set the facts straight for the critics who have been maligning the country’s reputation by running dubious allegation on the quality of drugs manufactured in India.

Dr P V Appaji, director general of Pharmexcil pointed out that questioning the quality of drugs that are manufactured in India is equal to raising questions on the competence of the drug regulators of the country. He assured and stressed that the drug regulatory body in India is as strong and effective as any other internationally accepted drug regulators.

“We are confident in our work and the government is working very hard to ensure that such negative reporting does not impact our exports nor our business relation with our investors. All said and done, the Drugs & Cosmetics Act is an effective and impressive set of rules and regulation that are rigorously implemented and monitored across the country through a very competent work force. We understand the importance of assuring the trust of our stakeholders and that is why the commerce ministry has planned to assuage their doubts and infuse trust through such a high profile meet,” stressed Dr Appaji.

He further informed that apart from the DCGI, other important drug controllers from major states across India will also be there at the meeting to give better insight on the rules and regulation and exports issues. Interestingly, this meeting is strategically planned and staged on the sidelines of the vibrant Gujarat 2015 summit, which is going to be flagged off from January 11 till 13 in Gandhi Nagar.

Dr Appaji stressed that considering the huge influx of global investors coming to attend this event it has become an ideas platform for the government to attract investor and boost exports to overseas market. It is understood that following the meet the Council also plans to take overseas regulators and key investors to visit pharma units to showcase the excellent level of regulatory compliance followed by Indian manufacturers.