The much-hyped visit of US President Barack Obama to India this week has expectedly failed to bring out anything fresh on the pharmaceutical front in the bilateral ties, though the US did pay attention to the healthcare sector as a key area of cooperation.

India and the US signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a global disease detection centre New Delhi. “To promote global health, we are setting up a new disease detection centre here in Delhi,” Obama disclosed at a press conference.

Putting healthcare as key point of the agenda, he also mentioned support towards dealing with diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in his speech to MPs. “Because the wealth of a nation also depends on the health of its people, we’ll continue to support India’s efforts against diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS,” Obama said during his address.

The new centre will facilitate development of human resource in the field of healthcare. It is aimed at sharing best practices for detection and response to emerging infections, also giving advance training for it. Building laboratory capacity for diagnosis of emerging infectious diseases using advanced technology is also part of the centre.

However, apart from this on healthcare, the crucial sector pharma drew a blank during the high profile visit, except a casual mention by the President during his address to the top brass of Indian industry in Mumbai. Though the President brought along with him a big team of high rank industrialists from the US, not even a single CEO of top US drug company was part of the delegation.

Observers felt that he skipped the pharma sector, despite being one of the sun rise segments of India, due to the existing contrasts and controversies in both the countries. The pharma industries in both the countries differ sharply on different notes and contradictions are reaching a peak in the recent times. While the domestic industry wants greater market access on one hand and a check on the flow of FDI into the domestic arena on the other, the known policy of Obama was against outsourcing.

Besides, the US pharma lobby also wants greater access and has reservations about the existing policies and regulatory framework in the Indian system. As recently reported, they had already taken up their apprehensions with the top officials during the visit of the delegation of PhRMA. These issues may have prompted the visiting President to skip the pharma sector and avoid any embarrassments, observers felt.