In a move to bring in better clarity over the Indian drug regulatory norms, and deliberate the issues of the exporters and international buyers alike, the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) is organising an interactive meeting with the government and top drug regulatory officials of the country in Hyderabad. This move is aimed at boosting the confidence of the Indian exporters by providing them with a platform to duly interact with the regulators on key issues affecting exports.

The meeting, which will be held from September 22 to 24, will see the presence of senior officials from the commerce ministry including Sudhanshu Pandey, joint secretary; Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr G N Singh along with state drug controllers from across the country.  Dr P V Appaji, director general of Pharmexcil informed that several technical and regulatory information will be shared during this meet, with special focus on data integrity issues, which is a burning topic affecting the industry at present.

He further informed that this meeting is strategically important for the stakeholders to attend, as Pandey will be giving detailed information of not only various government schemes and incentives available for the exporters, but also interact with the stakeholders to gauge and understand their requirements and issues.

Most importantly, the members from the UN and WHO will also be part of this meet wherein they will sensitize the exporters on procedures to participate for pre-qualification bids in the WHO and various UN agencies. Deliberations will also be made on the pharma exporters' long standing demand of making India a member country of Pharmaceutical Inspection Cooperation Scheme (PICS) which will enable and help the exporters to overcome the export hurdles to several less explored countries.

“We have organised this meet keeping in mind the current requirements and market dynamics of the industry. Pharmexcil is always striving hard to initiate steps that will help in boosting the exports from the country. We strongly believe that this can be achieved by overall understanding of the drug regulatory system of the country as well as the exporting countries. The purpose of this meeting is to provide guidance and useful tools that will assist in the process of boosting the exports by opening up window of unique opportunity for manufacturers to learn more about the regulations and procedures used in globally,” he added.