Usha Sharma – Mumbai
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| Dignitaries at the inaugural ceremony |
The annual adda of the global pharmaceutical industry, the three-day global pharmaceutical expo, CPhI India, kicked off successively in Mumbai at Bombay Exhibition Centre. The event was organised in association with Pharmexcil and aimed to register large number of exhibitors and visitors throughout the event. This year’s event saw a record 926 exhibitors from 21 countries interacting under the single roof of CPhI India and its co-located events: P-MEC India, ICSE India, and Bio-Ph India trade exhibitions. The event is touted to be South Asia’s largest pharmaceutical extravaganza.
Rajeev Kher, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry inaugurated the show along with Dr PV Appaji, Director General, Pharmexcil, NR Munjal, Chairman, Pharmexcil, and Sanjeev Kher, Managing Director, UBM.
Making his rounds of the various exhibitor halls and spending time with key exhibitors like ACG Worldwide, Shimadzu Analytical, Signet Chemicals, Calyx Chemicals and the like, Kher spoke about the Commerce Ministry’s plans to support all segments of the industry.
Speaking on the sidelines of the meet, Kher said, “Our overall target exports for this financial year is $320 billion and to ensure that we reach this in the remaining five months, we are reviewing our position and strategy. One of these strategies is to diversify into different geographies. We are working on breaking into markets other than the US and EU like Africa, China, CIS countries, Russia, the Middle East and North America.”
He also mentioned that besides additional markets, the Ministry is also considering other measures like special incentives and more market promotional activities to boost pharma exports.
He continued, “By the end of 2014-15, India’s pharma exports are expected to reach $25 billion. The Indian pharma industry is also covering a lot of ground in biopharmaceuticals at a rapid pace. Simultaneously the global generic market segment is growing faster than the branded drugs. The market size of drugs losing patent protection was $270 billion in 2011 and is expected to go up to $430 billion by 2016. Therefore it is but natural to view the Indian pharma industry among the top in the next decade.
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| Ribbon cutting ceremony at Pharmexcil pavilion |
One of the major market promotional activities is the ‘Brand India Pharma’ campaign, a major branding initiative highlighting the three key proven characteristics of Indian pharma: presence across 230 countries, accessible due to affordable pricing and high quality.
Kher emphasised that the Ministry of Commerce will fully support Pharmexcil in its efforts to take the ‘Brand India Pharma campaign’ symbolised by a stylised Rx, to all countries and geographies.
He further emphasised that the domestic pharma industry is gearing up in a big way, with more and more people likely to be covered by various health benefit policies, be it insurance and with facilities offered by healthcare industry matching the best in the world.
This year’s show had visitors from 118 countries across the globe, who had pre-registered for the three-day exhibition, which was held in seven exhibition halls spread over 55,000 sq. metres. P-MEC India had 45 new exhibiting companies and several new features like a new mobile app for easy real time navigation of the exhibition halls, which made its debut this year at CPhI and P-MEC India.
A series of Technical Seminars presented by exhibitors were held throughout the event. A CEO conclave with a panel discussion was held at the Westin Hotel, Goregaon, followed by the unveiling of the first CPhI India Pharma Awards.
On the first day of the show UBM announced that its next global CPhI destination would be Sri Lanka where it would be hosting the first ‘Sri Lanka Pharma Week’ from December 3-7, 2012. The event is expected to be one of the largest senior-level industry meets as the island nation gears itself up for some radical regulatory and operational changes. Thus ‘Sri Lanka Pharma Week’ will be all about building new relationships, cementing old ones and understanding how to successfully enter this burgeoning market.
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