India, US to collaborate on the quality standards of Indian pharma industry: US official

India and the US will work on forging a partnership to improve the quality standards of the domestic pharmaceutical industry so that Indian medicines are “accepted everywhere in the world”, a top US official said on Friday.

“We want to make sure that India continues to be a good partner in the exchange of pharmaceuticals and the growth of pharmaceutical products. This requires Indian companies to meet the US standards if they wish to export to us,” Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of Health and Human Services said at the G20 Health Ministers’ meeting at Gandhinagar.

“But at the same time, there is a growing desire in India to make sure that their industry continues to grow. So one of the things that India would like to see from the US is deeper cooperation in standards that make it possible to have an industry that will thrive because it will be accepted everywhere in the world.”

Becerra said that during his meeting with Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, the two sides discussed ways to collaborate on the safety and availability of medicines. “What we're looking for is some form of an accord,” he said.

The US Secretary said the FDA commissioner would be in India shortly as the chief negotiator to take forward the discussion on such a partnership.

“We have a very strong and dependent relationship with India when it comes to pharmaceuticals. We depend on India, India depends on us and together we can both thrive when it comes to making sure medicines are available not just to our people but to the world.”

The US announcement on a proposal to collaborate on the quality standards of the industry comes in the middle of widespread concerns on Indian drugs after made-in-India cough syrups suspected to have triggered deaths in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon. There is also a recent WHO alert on a brand of cough syrup sold in Iraq.

Earlier this year, an India-made drop was found to be the culprit behind a deadly bacterial outbreak in the USA.

Following the concerns, the Union Health Ministry raided some of the production units, shut down a few, and asked the small and medium players to implement the global-standard quality parameters in a time bound manner.

In a video message to the G20 health ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to the rich nations to facilitate “equitable availability of technology” not only to overcome the challenges in healthcare but also to battle the adverse consequences of climate change, which is closely linked to public health.