China promising for Indian pharma
South Asian country must innovate, cooperate
It is still too early for India to celebrate China’s continued opening of its drug industry, as the South Asian country must boost innovation in its pharmaceutical industry and cooperate with Chinese companies to smooth export procedures, experts said on Sunday.
“India, as the world’s pharmacy, has to continue to work with Chinese authorities to reach mutual recognition of standards or inspections conducted by authorities from the two sides,” said Tian Guangqiang, assistant research fellow with the National Institute of International Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
India has become a major production hub for generic drugs, which Chinese authorities still hold a cautious attitude toward due to their unpredictable side effects, he said.
Generic drugs are less expensive but not subject to a patent protection period. India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally, with Indian generics accounting for 20 percent of global exports in terms of volume, said a report published on the website of the India Brand Equity Foundation.
“The booming generic drug industry in India has caused an uneven level of production, and some small manufacturers cannot reach the standards for export,” Tian said, noting that if India really wants to benefit from a more open cancer drug market in China, it should enhance innovation in its drug industry.
Cancer drugs are life-saving drugs that should not be unaffordable, especially following exemptions from import tariffs, Premier Li Keqiang told a recent State Council meeting, according to a post published on the central government’s website on Friday.
Starting from May 1, China has exempted 28 drugs from import tariffs, including cancer drugs, in order to enhance the availability and inclusiveness of the drugs and to reduce the burden of patients.
About 10,000 patients are diagnosed with cancer annually in China, ,industry news site cn-healthcare. com reported.
“The Chinese market will become more open to foreign pharmaceutical companies for sure, considering the related cancer risks that Chinese people are facing,” Wu Bin, vice chairman of the China Association of Pharmaceutical Commerce, told the Global Times on Sunday.
India has long been asking China to open its information technology and pharmaceutical firms to reduce the trade deficit, which has reached over $50 billion, Press Trust of India reported in May.
“Indian pharmaceutical companies can also cooperate with their Chinese counterparts by setting up production plants in China to overcome issues regarding tariffs and administrative barriers,” Tian said.