BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 13
Trend:
As part of celebrations of 75 years of India's Independence - Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Embassy of India in Baku, in association with the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) organized a Webinar / B2B Meeting in hybrid mode, on India-Azerbaijan cooperation in Pharmaceutical sector on October 13, 2021. The event was attended by about more than 130 participants including representatives from the relevant Government Authorities of the Republic of Azerbaijan, PHARMEXCIL, Embassy of India, and major pharmaceutical companies in Azerbaijan and India.
Mr. B. Vanlalvawna, Ambassador of India made opening remarks mentioning that Indian pharma sector occupies a dominant position in the world. Having informed the participants about new opportunities, Ambassador indicated that more than 8 Million RT-PCR test kits are produced in India on a daily basis. He added that close to 200 Indian pharmaceutical products have already been registered in Azerbaijan. The Ambassador said that the Indian economy is experiencing healthy growth and the IMF has predicted a growth of 9.5% for the Indian economy during this fiscal year. He said that this growth can be attributed to recent reforms in the Indian economy including the introduction of new taxation laws, Production Linked Incentive Schemes, setting up of Development Finance Institution, the passage of labour code, launching of asset monetization pipeline, liberalising investment policy on the telecom sector etc.
Mr. Hamid Gurbanov, Head of Registration and Expertise Department, Analytical Expertise Center under the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan, made a Presentation about drug registration process in Azerbaijan. Mr. Vusal Damirov, Senior Adviser, Tariff Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan spoke about price regulation policy of Azerbaijan for medicines.
Ms. Rashida Abdullayeva, Head of Procurement and Supply Department, Mandatory Health Insurance Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan spoke about the Government procurement procedure of pharmaceutical products in Azerbaijan.
Ms. Lakshmi Prasanna, Director, Regulatory Affairs, Pharmexcil made a presentation on "Indian Pharma Industry & Contribution to the World” informing that India is a 3rd largest exporter of formulations by volume & 10th by value, and 8 out of 20 Global Generic companies are from India. She also mentioned that 90% of WHO Pre-Qualified API’s are sourced from India .
During the event, Ms. Ulviyya Azmammadova, Director of Macromedicine spoke on market opportunities in Azerbaijan in the sphere of the pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Orkhan Guliyev, Import Manager of Avromed, made a presentation about its company and opportunities for cooperation with Indian pharma companies.
The participants from the two sides had useful interaction and discussed the opportunities for further cooperation.
Total global exports of pharmaceutical products from India from April 2020 to March 2021 was US$ 24.5 billion. India as the ‘Pharmacy of the World’ provides generic medicines to more than 200 countries and 70% of WHO’s vaccine requirements are sourced from India. India has already administered more than 960 million COVID-19 vaccines to its residents and has supplied 66 million doses of COVID Vaccines to more than 90 countries.
During Jan-Jul 2021, India exported US$ 15.8 million worth of pharmaceutical products to Azerbaijan with an increase of over 96% as compared to the same period of last year. India’s share in the Azerbaijani market has increased to 5.3% during the period.
