Pharmac 2018 to be held in Ahmedabad from Oct 25 to 27

Ahmedabad: The 9th edition of Pharmac India, the pharma sector expo, will be held here from October 25 to 27.

Addressing a press conference here today Chirag Doshi, Chairman of the Phrmac exhibition committee, said that large international industry delegations from various countries including South East Asia and Africa would participate in the event (Pharmac 2018) to be held at The Arena by TransStadia here.

The three day event will be showcasing an exhaustive array of Pharma machinery and Engineering, Formulation, Bulk Drugs, veterinary drugs, Additives and Intermediaries, Pharma Ancillaries, Refrigeration, Maintenance and safety equipment etc,’ he said.

‘Nearly 100 exhibitors would showcase their strength,’ he said adding that with the tax incentives in hilly states expiring during 2017 to 2020 and the impact of GST on the industry reducing over the last one year, Gujarat pharma industry is seeing a booming growth. Its share in the Indian pharma sector is likely to grow to 40% from existing 33%. The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration has approved construction of 155 new pharma units in the state after implementation of GST. Over 30 more are expanding,’ Doshi said adding that of the around 8000 pharma unit in the country 3300 were in Gujarat alone.

He said that Indian pharma market accounts for around 20% of the global market according to volume and 1.5% in terms of value and is valued at Rs 1.11 trillion for FY 2016-17. It is predicted to be six largest market globally by 2020.

To a query Doshi said that the fall of rupee against dollar has impacted the industry in India negatively as it was largely dependent on import of API and other ingredients. The increase in prices of API in China has also hit Industry.

On the occasion, Dr Milan Satia, Executive Committee of the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association, said that drugs worth an estimated $137 billion are scheduled to go off-patent in US and Europe over the next 5 years and India is poised to take advantage of the resulting generic opportunity.

He said that the new global rules have posed a challenge for the pharma units of MSME sector due to compliance issues and in the coming times it would be resolved.

Satia also informed that the clinical trial of medicines in the country was again seeing a rise after steep fall a few years ago due to stricter regulatory mechanism. Now that the pharma industry and clinical research organizations have realigned their structures in response to new directives,the business in this field is likely to go up to $1.2 billions from existing $750 million by 2020.

DeshGujarat