The European Commission has not responded to repeated reminders by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to substantiate allegations that India was a large source of counterfeit drugs.
?We have sent several reminders after we wrote a letter to the Commission (asking them to clarify what they meant by counterfeit drugs), but they have not yet responded,? DCGI Venkateswarlu told FE. In a recent report, EC had claimed that India was the largest source of the 2.7 million counterfeit drugs seized by its custom department in 2006.
The DCGI office, in its letter to the Commission, had raised objection on labelling India as a large source of counterfeit drugs. Venkateswarlu said: ?Such allegations would harm country?s growing pharma industry? Seizure of drugs (by the customs department) does not mean that the drugs are fake. Seizure could happen for other reasons as well.?
A response from the EC could have helped the DCGI office to gauge the magnitude of counterfeit drugs. Also, many countries follow different rules. Drugs that are not registered in some countries are also counted as counterfeit drugs.
When asked what action would India take if they (European Commission) do not respond, Venkateswarlu said: ?What can we do if somebody does not respond?? Before deciding on the future course of action India wanted to understand the basis of their claim and their definition of counterfeit drugs, he added.
In its report the EC had said that the emergence of the pharma sector reflects the developing industrial capacity of India. The concern lies with the fact that production of fake drugs is being carried on a large scale.
The Rs 2,700-crore domestic pharma industry also raised strong objection to the EC?s report, which said that India, United Arab Emirates and China accounted for about 80% of fake medicines. Moreover, the report added that it would harm the sun rise sector which had helped make quality drugs accessible to many even in the developed world.
India, by volume, is the fourth largest producer of drugs across the globe. About half of the country?s revenue from medicines could be attributed to the first two drug markets, the US and the European Union.