Advertorial – On March 19 and 20, Ho Chi Minh City will host the INDIAN PHARMA EXPO BUYER & SELLER MEET 2015 at GEM Center, 8 Nguyen Binh Khiem Street, Da Kao Ward, District 1. The exhibition is open to the public from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm during the two days.

The event is jointly organized by the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (PHARMEXCIL) and the Indian Chamber of Commerce (INCHAM) in Vietnam, with active support from the Consulate General of India.

The exhibition will attract more than 50 companies from India that specialize in formulations, active pharmaceutical ingredients, nutraceuticals, biologicals, herbal products, equipment & pharma machinery.

PHARMEXCIL takes regular trade delegations to several countries, including Vietnam. It has so far maintained interactions with Vietnamese trade associations through the Indian embassy.

The expo expects to get a fresh jump for the cooperation between India and Vietnam in the pharmaceutical sector.

Indian pharmaceutical companies started supplying medicines to the Vietnamese market in the early 1990s. Since then, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has helped Vietnam stabilize finished formulation prices, making available the latest molecules and newer therapy options at reasonable prices. On this account, Vietnamese doctors and patients have developed tremendous faith in Indian pharmaceutical products.

India is an important supplier of raw materials, technology and machine parts to Vietnamese pharmaceutical manufacturers as well. Now, Indian experts are working in senior positions for Vietnamese formulation manufacturers.

India is also a major supplier of pharmaceutical medicines to the Vietnamese market. Indian medications include almost all therapeutic groups like vitamins, painkillers, advanced antibiotics, injectable products, infusions, anti-hypertensive products, anti-diabetic products, anti-cancer products, neuropsychiatric products, vaccines, etc.

Imports of pharmaceutical products from India to Vietnam have grown ever since, and maintained a good growth rate for the last five years. In 2009, it was US$148.6 million and in 2013, it was $246 million. For the year of 2014, imports from India reached $267 million, posting 7.75 percent growth and occupying a 13.12 percent share of the total. India is the single largest exporting country to Vietnam in the pharmaceutical sector.

India tops the list of the number of pharmaceutical companies registered and the number of product registrations in Vietnam. Indian registrations in 2014 stood at 4,269, accounting for almost 26 percent of the total foreign medicines registered in Vietnam.

Besides the prominent position held by Indian pharmaceutical companies in Vietnam, pharmaceutical products are included in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between ASEAN and India and now entitled to a preferential tax rate of 0 to nine percent only. This will enhance the importation of pharmaceutical products from India to Vietnam.