New Delhi, July 26: India has the potential to emerge as a major production base for global pharmaceutical markets because of the large pool of the low-cost skilled professionals and availability of cheaper raw material.The cost of setting up plants in India is also 40 per cent less than that in the developed countries, minister of state for commerce and industry, Omar Abdullah said in Delhi on Wednesday.He was participating in a round table on "Partnership Healthcare" along with Jose Serra, Minister for health, Brazil, and CP Thakur, minister for heatlh and family welfare, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).Abdullah said India had a tremendous potential for contract manufacturing of pharmaceuticals as a result of which a number of international companies were sourcing their formulations and bulk drugs from India.
He said the Brazilian government might consider entering into a free trade agreement with India which might be in the areas of drugs and pharmaceutical and chemicals sector.
India produces a wide range of nearly 300 bulk drugs and more than 20,000 formulations meeting the requirements of developed and developing countries.
Abdullah said that Indian drugs were approved by the health authorities of the US, UK and EU and other developed countries and India ranked among the top 10 drug manufacturing countries in the world.
India's exports of drugs and pharmaceuticals during 1999-2000 were of the order of $ 1530 million and the country expected a growth rate of 20 per cent in exports of formulations as well as bulk drugs along with the same level of growth in the production of bulk drugs by the year 2002, Abdullah said.
Indian companies, he added, were already making their presence felt in Brazil with Dr Reddy's Laboratories having established a joint venture in Sao Paulo with a Brazilian firm and Ranbaxy Labs having set up an office in the same location.
Hoping that the visit of the Brazilian minister would further strengthen mutual cooperation, Abdullah said that India was looking forward to the bright prospects for citizens of India and Brazil in the field of cheaper and high quality drugs and pharmaceuticals products.
The commerce and industry minister informed that India and Brazil had signed a bilateral science and technology agreement in 1998 in the field of health and medicine which envisaged cooperation in the areas of technology, health and pharmaceuticals products, epidemology, sanitary surveillance, public health system, traditional medicines, pharmacology, infectious diseases, tropical medicines and maternal and child care.
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