The commerce ministry convened the first meeting of the inter-ministerial committee in Delhi on Friday to discuss over the issues arising during the issuance of Written Confirmation (WC) certificate by the DCGI for pharma products exported to the European Union (EU).

The meeting focused on various parameters that will help the government to effectively gauge on the progress of the exports of the medicinal products in accordance with recent implementation of the EU Directives. It is understood that the commerce ministry is working very strongly towards pursuing this matter by taking all the possible measures to ensure that the exports to the EU is not affected due to the implementation of this new directive.

Dr P V Appaji, director general, Pharmexcil informed, “The commerce ministry is very clear on its stand to protect the exporters interest and are taking all the steps to ensure that the manufacturers do not suffer due this implementation. Most importantly, the ministry is taking all the required precautions to see to it that there is no impact on the exports to EU countries at all.”

The first meeting of the three-member committee constituted by the government was chaired by Sudhanshu Pandey, joint secretary, ministry of commerce along the other members of the committee which constitute of the Deputy Drugs Controller General of India (Dy DCGI) and Dr Appaji, the Director General of Pharmexcil.

The meeting elaborately discussed about the status of the application submitted by the exporters to the different zonal offices of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), number of recommendation received by the DCGI from the respective zonal offices endorsing the applications. They also analysed the number of WC issued by the DCGI till now, based on the recommendation of the zonal offices along with a detailed examination on the problems and issues related to the issuance of the WC.

It is understood that special focus was also given on understanding the problems faced by the exporters while applying for the WC along with   understanding the cause of any delays, if any, while issuing the same. Dr Appaji stressed that the commerce ministry is completely aware of complications arising out of this new implementation and thus is taking all possible measures to ease the problems of the exporters by bringing transparency and  accountability to the whole process.