Top Regulatory officials from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is soon expected to visit the office of the Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA), to understand and gauge the regulatory set up adopted in the state. This is a maiden visit of the representatives from the foundation to the country signalling, a possibility of growing role of Indian medicines in addressing the needs of the global population.

The team headed by regulatory official of the Foundation, Dr Vincent Ahonkhai from Washington and accompanied by Dr Lalith Kanth, deputy director India office will be visiting Gujarat on July 17. It is understood that they are in India to scout for opportunity that will help them in procuring high quality affordable medicines to be supplied to needy patients across the globe. Interestingly, the foundation is said to have decided to visit Gujarat, due to the strong presence of the pharma companies in the state, which is the largest in the country.

According to Dr H G Koshia, commissioner, Gujarat FDCA, this strategic visit marks a great importance for the growth of the industry, as it reinstates the trust that the world puts in drugs that are manufactured from the state. He further pointed out that the main aim behind their visit will be to understand the unique functioning of the regulatory mechanism adopted for granting and monitoring the drugs.

He stressed, “We are very excited about their visit to our office, as it will give us the opportunity to interact and explore areas of interests with the other, in context of understanding different techniques that will further help us in briefing-up our regulatory mechanism in the state. This will be a win win situation for them as well as it will give them a greater understanding of the dynamics of the industry and regulation adopted in the country. We are confident that this visit will lead to a string of collaborative efforts between the two organisation that will be mutually beneficial for all.”

Experts believe that this can provide a huge opportunity for the Indian manufacturers as it is the first time that the Gates Foundation have directly shown interest in understating the Indian pharma industry, which is one of the biggest supplier of affordable generic drugs across the globe. It is a well established fact that the Foundation has an excellent networking set up which will ensure that these drugs are made accessible to millions of needy patients spread across the world, which will be other wise very difficult for the for the Indian companies to reach, due to logistical challenges.