The Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) for the first time included a team of 12 doctors from across India who are specialist in their field as delegates to visit Myanmar for a three-day Brand India event to showcase Indian pharma industry. The second edition of the Myanmar expo organised by Pharmexcil from February 17 to 19 aims at strengthening the Brand India and creating awareness about the Indian pharma industry in Myanmar.

Apart from the brand building initiative, it also aims at developing better business relationship between the local manufacturers and Indian exporters.

Dr P V Appaji, executive director, Pharmexcil, informed, “This is for the first time that we have invited doctors and medical professionals as delegates to a pharma export event. The idea behind inviting medical professionals is to create awareness about Indian products among the medical fraternity in Myanmar since they are the ones who prescribe the medicines to the patients. It is our responsibility to promote and make them aware about the drugs that are made by Indian manufacturers and assure them about the quality and efficacy of the drugs manufactured in India.”

About 200 to 250 local medical professionals from Myanmar are expected to attend the conference and the buyer seller meet which will be conducted during the three days of the event. Along with the doctors, 22 Indian pharma exporters are also participating in this event. These delegates will be responsible to promote the Indian drug industry and medical system to their foreign counterpart.

Dr Appaji said that if this model is successful then Pharmexcil will adopt the same method in Latin America, CIS nations and African countries as well to encourage Indian pharma export to these countries. He pointed out that in spite of the stiff competition from the MNCs and repeated attempts made by them to impact the Indian business from the country, India still have 40 to 50 per cent of Myanmar's business.

India has been strengthening its relation with Myanmar lately. Recently during Vibrant Gujarat, Pharmexcil had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Myanmar to strengthen the pharma trade relations between the two countries and explore new opportunities. Even this expo is a part of confidence building measure between the two nations.

This year lots of trade related activities are being conducted by Pharmexcil to increase export potential of the country. After this international expo, Pharmexcil is conducting a national event called BioAsia 2011 in collaboration with Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA) from February 21 to 24, 2011. It is the first time that Pharmexcil is conducting a conference focused on the export potential of biopharmaceutical products.