Who’ll cure Africa?

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Related Articles

Pfizer’s Handa is new MD of Wyeth IndiaLower forex losses put Ranbaxy back in the blackPfizer profit up 26% on job cutsPfizer forms policies to raise standards

: Indian pharmaceutical companies export over Rs 600 crore worth of affordable high quality medicines to Africa and the African market is the fourth largest global pharmaceutical export market for Indian players. The reason these medicines are affordable is that they are knock- offs (copies) of medicines that have lost patent protection.

However, certain African countries are not so accessible to Indian generic manufacturers anymore. Recently, governments of African countries like Nigeria and Uganda adopted legislation that would block imports of cheaper anti-HIV drugs from Indian manufacturers. Despite efforts on the part of commerce ministry and Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) to assure representatives of these countries that these products pose no health risks, are efficacious and do not violate intellectual property laws, a third African country, Libya, has followed suit by seizing some consignments and holding back consignments at ports, citing a notification dated June 9, banning the imports of drugs from non-EU and non-North American countries. Sources in Pharmaexcil say they have requested and are awaiting a copy of the notification to study the same, so that they can effectively address the issues raised.

This was preceded by Kenya’s move to pass anti-counterfeit legislation that allows generics having patent protection anywhere in the world to be considered counterfeit in case of an intellectual property dispute with the patent holder. This law has been branded anti-patient as the African continent is a beneficiary of affordable drugs from India, the largest supplier of generic anti-retrovirals to low- and middle-income countries.

Indian pharma industry players unfortunately seem to be under a pincer attack, considering that drug regulators in developed countries continue to make inspections of manufacturing facilities more stringent. Jubilant Organosys’s Belgium subsidiary is the latest example of this trend, which started with Ranbaxy-Daichii, and also has Sun Pharma’s Caraco facility in its grip. Industry experts say it cannot be proved that India is being singled out for more stringent inspections but this is cold comfort for industry players.