#anticancerdrug

At a time when Indian pharmaceutical's over-dependency on Chinese market for raw materials is a rising concern, Chinese companies are showing interest in sourcing medicines from India, especially anti-cancer drugs from Gujarat. While pharma companies in the country have been successful in exporting drugs across the world, it has not been so successful in cracking the Chinese pharma code. Pharmaceutical companies in India have been complaining that the Chinese authorities do not register Indian medicines for sales in China, since long. However, as a silver lining ahead of PM Narendra Modi's visit to China in May , Chinese companies have expressed interest in sourcing drugs from India. A delegation from China's Guangdong province visited Ahmedabad on Wednesday--on an invitation from India China Economic and Cultural Council (ICEC) and China India Trade & Investment Centre (CITIC)-to interact with leading Gujarat-based pharma companies like Dishman Group, Swiss Pharma, Redson Labs among others and help local pharma companies crack the Chinese drug market with finished drugs from Gujarat. Lily Zhou, a member of the delegation said that since the last one year, health department in China has liberalized its processes, including pharma registrations. "China is particularly interested in getting anti-cancer drugs from Gujarat. Our companies are ready to support Indian pharma companies in their drug registration processes in China. The government in China is opening up to Indian pharma companies and will hopefully reach some outcome during Modi's visit to China in May 2015." According to CITIC, the Chinese companies also said that they are ready to support Indian pharma companies in their drug registration processes in China. During Modi's visit to China as the chief minister of Gujarat in 2011, he had taken up the issue of pharma companies of India. "Among other issues, the delegation talked to Gujarat's pharma companies about the requirements of Indian pharma companies in order to finalize the incentives and subsidies to be offered to Indian pharma companies," said Jagat Shah, secretary general of CITIC. Currently, India imports over 80-85% of API, or raw material used in medicines, from China. The domestic API manufacturing industry, mostly based out of Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, currently accounts for 8-10% of India's Rs 79,000-crore pharmaceutical market.