The cooperation between India and Vietnam in the field of pharmaceutical industry has grown faster. India’s status as a crucial partner in supplying affordable medicines was reaffirmed at the Indian Pharma Expo & Buyer Seller Meet held in Ho Chi Minh City recently.
The exhibition was organized by the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (PHARMEXCIL) and supported by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (InCham) in Vietnam, attracting more than 50 Indian companies in various sectors and areas such as formulations, active pharmaceutical ingredients, nutraceuticals, biologicals, herbal products, equipment, pharma machinery, and project implementation.
On the Vietnamese side, keen interest was evinced by pharmacists, doctors, trade channels and pharmaceutical manufacturing companies, underlining the fact that India is the largest supplier of pharmaceuticals to Vietnam and a major source of technology transfer, machinery and equipment.
Both sides agreed that cooperation in this sector should be speeded up and taken to a higher level. The event saw many contracts signed and business alliances established.
Inaugurating the exhibition, Indian Consul General Smita Pant noted that during Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to India last October, the two sides identified the pharma sector as a priority area of cooperation.
“Recently, in January, when the Indian Commerce Secretary visited Vietnam for the second Sub-Commission meeting on Trade in January 2015, we had discussed how the manufacturing strengths of India and Vietnam could be leveraged for developing complementarity in pharmaceuticals,” she said.
Pant also observed that Indian companies had started supplying medicines to Vietnam in the early 1990s. The Indian pharmaceutical industry has helped Vietnam stabilize finished formulation prices and made available the latest molecules and newer therapy options at affordable prices, directly benefitting the patients.
Assistant Regional Director of Pharmexcil, Rojarani, said that India had grown from being a low cost generic supplier to a global, high-end player with integrated R&D, product development and manufacturing. USA tops the list of countries sourcing medicines from India. Vietnam stands 11th in the list, importing about US$265 million worth of medicines from India.
Following their successes in generics, Indian companies are now entering the era of super generics. Super generics are an improved version of original drugs. The nature of the improvement may include drug delivery, manufacturing or reformulation technology. Rojarani said that today, India can supply any kinds of pharmaceutical products of assured quality at competitive prices. She said that given the opportunity, India can help the Vietnamese government meet its healthcare objectives.
Striking a different note, InCham Chairman Jay Prakash Shriram noted that even though India is the single largest country supplying medicines to Vietnam. India supplies Vietnam with not only pharmaceutical formulations but also active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) as well as technological support for establishing new manufacturing plants as well as upgrading existing facilities.
“Indian companies can supply affordable world-class medicines which can bring the treatment cost considerably down for Vietnamese patients as in the case of new molecules for various critical diseases like cancer and heart disease,” he said.
Imports of pharmaceutical products from India to Vietnam have grown steadily over the years. In 2014, pharmaceutical imports from India reached US$267 million, a year-on-year growth of 7.75 percent and a 13.12 percent market share of total imports.
India tops the list of the number of pharmaceutical companies registered and the number of product registrations in Vietnam. Indian product registrations in 2014 stood at 4,269, accounting for almost 26 percent of all foreign medicines registered in Vietnam.
Organizers were very happy to see the enthusiastic turn out of Vietnamese stakeholders to the exhibition. They also added success to the two-day exhibition through alliances formalized, purchase contracts signed and some companies deciding to open their representative offices in Vietnam for a more focused approach to the local market.
Source: VEN
Key words: Promote, India, Vietnam, pharmaceutical cooperation
