JOHANNESBURG: Chinese drugs with Indian labels are flooding West Africa, seriously impacting attempts by Indian pharmaceutical companies to enter the African market, according to the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil).
"Drugs of Chinese origin are reaching Nigeria with labels saying these are made in India," Pharmexcil executive director P.V. Appaji said.
"We have to be extremely careful in ensuring that only genuine drugs exported from India and protected drugs are made available to the African public," Appaji said, adding: "Worldwide, access to low cost generics is under threat from counterfeits, generic violations or local laws, but that is something that we can work out together."
According to him, the potential for India and South Africa to cooperate to push generic drugs was "excellent".
"I found that the South African government is well aware of this, and is trying to take care of it by increasing the penetration of generic drugs throughout South Africa," Appaji said.
The Indian pharmaceutical industry is well positioned in dealing with these challenges and will benefit from establishing links with South Africa, he added.
The Pharmexcil delegation will also visit countries neighbouring South Africa such as Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia later this week.
Pharmexcil's foray into Africa started with Kenya in East Africa and Tunisia in North Africa, with a delegation visiting Ghana, Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa three months ago.
"We found that generic drugs are very well received in these African countries and hope to establish links with them to counter the impact of counterfeit generic drugs," Appaji said.
Source : The Economic Times