India is expected to sign pharma deals with Nigeria, the country’s largest trading partner from Africa to reclaim and boost the pharmaceutical exports after fake ‘Made in India’ drugs originating from China were seized by Nigerian authorities last June. The officials’ concerned of the Indian government will engage with the visiting Nigerian delegation to work out modalities on how to detect and monitor the origin of fake drugs, and also to augment the share of Indian generic drug market in Nigeria.
In June, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) of Nigeria had announced that a large consignment of fake anti-malarial generic drugs labelled `Made in India' were seized by the customs which found to have been produced in China. India had then complained its concerns to NAFDAC, and later, the agency had promised that they would send a delegation to jointly formulate models that would avoid the occurrence of fake drugs in future.
India is likely to use resources from the ‘challenge India fund’ maintained by the commerce ministry to protect the reputation of the Indian generic market, and will also try to improve its sales. A major decision would be to open retail pharmacy outlets across Nigeria in collaboration with Indian government to counter the unregulated medical stores which often become the conduit for fake medicines.
The proposed talks is expected to review the possibilities of Indian drug companies to set up manufacturing units in Nigeria and explore whether Indian public sector drug makers could supply low-cost quality drugs to the Nigerian government. India views Africa as one of the fastest growing markets for its generic drugs, and Africa accounts for over 15 percent of India’s total generic exports worth $6bn annually.
The total two-way trade between India and African nations stood at around $30bn in 2007-08. Almost half of the amount came from Indo-Nigerian bilateral trade at about $14bn during the same period, and the trade between the two saw almost a jump of $5bn from its previous year.
By Jose Roy
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