Azerbaijan, India may establish joint ventures in field of pharmaceuticals

There cannot be a better time to discuss how to improve cooperation between India and Azerbaijan in the area of pharmaceuticals, Lakshmi Prasanna, director of the Regulatory Affairs at Pharmexcil (Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India), said at the Azerbaijan-India pharmaceutical business forum held in Baku, Report informs.

According to her, almost 60 Indian delegates representing 46 companies who are eager to strengthen their relationships with Azerbaijan are in Baku:

"I warmly invite Azerbaijani business leaders to closely engage with Indian delegates and explore the potential for strategic alliances and cooperative ventures."

She emphasized that India is known for producing quality and efficacious medicines at a very affordable price and popularly known as the pharmacy of the world: "We are the world's largest supplier of generic medicines, particularly antiretrovirals and antitubercular, to international NGOs and currently supplying medicines to more than 200 countries. In terms of universal immunization requirements of WHO, India is the largest supplier of vaccines with a share of almost 65-70%. It is not only the developing nations but also the developed economies are equally getting benefitted from Indian generics in saving their health economies. It's evident from the fact that 50% of India's exports are to North America and Europe, with an approximate value of $12 billion and the USA is our largest export destination. It is because of its competitive strengths in supplying quality medicines with compliance of stringent regulatory norms. Indeed India has the distinction of having the highest number of USFDA-approved sites outside the USA with an approximate 740+ sites. Our exports are valued $24.6 billion in FY 22 and 30% of our exports are to the USA itself.

"CIS region is one of the potential markets for Indian industry and our members are keen to make their inroads into the region & to Azerbaijan in particular. We understand that with a limited numberof the population of 10 million, the Azerbaijan's pharma market of $ 850 million size is largely driven by imports. While Türkiye, Europe, China and Russia are the major importing partners to Azerbaijan, India stands at 6th position with a meager share of 4-5% of its total imports of $650 million."

India's charge d'affaires in Azerbaijan, Vinay Kumar, said in his speech that last year his country exported pharmaceutical products worth $27.8 million to Azerbaijan: "The registration of more than 200 Indian pharmaceutical products in Azerbaijan creates a good basis for others to enter the market and for diversification. At present, India's export of pharmaceutical products to Azerbaijan is small and does not reflect real opportunities for cooperation between the two countries in this sector."

Advisor to the Executive Director, Export and Investment Promotion Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan (AZPROMO), Tural Hajili, said in his speech that they are happy to support partners from India in Azerbaijan: "Trade relations between Azerbaijan and India are developing. Pirallahi Pharmaceutical Industrial Park operates in our country, and Indian businessmen can consider this area."