India has asked China to take strong action against Chinese pharma manufacturers who are exporting fake drugs under “Made in India” label. The development comes after the Nigerian drug regulator detected large consignment of fake drugs with “Made in India” label, but was actually produced in China.
“Taking serious note of the action by unscrupulous elements to malign Indian generic pharma industry, Embassy of India, Beijing, has been requested to lodge a strong protest with concerned Chinese authorities and also to impress upon them to take stringent action against such unscrupulous elements,” said a commerce ministry statement. issued on Thursday.
The fake anti-ma larial drugs, if undetected, would have affected 0.64 million adults. Nigeria is the biggest buyer of Indian drugs in the African sub-continent.
“There have been cases of Nigerian authorities blacklisting over 10 Indian pharma companies without completely verifying the credentials. The ball is now in the Chinese court to take it up. Our exporters are on alert,” said P V Appaji, executive director of Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council.
Analysts say this will impact India’s brand equity in the global supply chain. “India is a reliable supplier of low-cost effective drugs. The government needs to wake up to this menace and alert international enforcement agencies,” said Hitesh Gajaria, partner with consulting firm KPMG.
India’s pharmaceutical market is $10.7 billion with 95 per cent comprising the generic variety. India’s exports of pharmaceutical products reached $7.79 billion for the period April to February 2009 period growing at almost 19 per cent, compared with same period during previous year.
