With a view to give a major thrust to medicine exports, the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) has entered into strategic alliances with some of the key organisations across the world during the iPHEX 2013 event held last week in Mumbai. Marking a major breakthrough, four important memorandum of understandings (MoUs) was signed between Pharmexcil and various other organisations, during the first commerce ministry backed congression aimed at boosting business opportunities of the Indian exporters.

The four MoUs signed between the council and the respective organisations seek to provide access to good quality medicines that are affordable to needy patients across the globe. Most importantly, the partnership will expose the Indian exporters to those markets which have been least accessible or explored till date, giving them a chance to expand their business simultaneously. While also allowing them to service the patient needs by helping them to understand and manufacture those medicines on priority basis, to tackle the disease burden affecting those areas.

Dr P V Appaji, director general, Pharmexcil informed that they have already entered into strategic partnerships with two major associations on the second day of the event by signing the MoUs that are mutually beneficial for all, while the other two were signed on the last day of the three-day event. Informing about the same, he said that one of the MoUs signed is with a Taipei based organisation called, Chinese Association for Pharmaceutical Agents (CAPA) under which India has agreed to supply high quality generic drugs to the country with an aim to help the patients to choose between expensive drugs available in the market with far more affordable Indian made generic drugs.

While speaking about the other strategic alliance signed with Empower, a non-governmental organisations (NGO) promoted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for procuring and enabling supply of affordable and safe medicines to the African nations, Dr Appaji said that it is a huge initiative with an immense scope for the Indian exporters to tap these niche and highly potential market.

According to Dr Appaji, “They will certainly act as an efficient support and communication bridge for us to access tough geographical locations that have been till now very difficult for us to explore, due to lack of understanding of the patient needs in these countries. Most importantly, through this partnership we will be able to play an active and indisputable role in assisting the organisation in their mission to promote the healthcare needs of the patients across the African countries by providing them with access to high quality affordable medicines at the earliest.”

On the other two MoUs, he said that the information is still embargoed and will be disclosed soon. He further added that the response they got from the international community on their maiden project reinstates their goal of promoting the growth of the Indian pharma industry globally.

“In fact the MoU with Empower signals a very prospective future for the industry as they work very closely with the NGOs across the world to ensure accessibility of safe and affordable medicines globally wherein Indian companies can play a major role. It will be a mutually beneficial agreement wherein, they have assured us that they will keep us updated on the requirements of essential medicines as and when needed, through Pharmexcil so that we can in turn sensitise and inform the Indian companies on the patient requirements,” he added.