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12/11/08

Livemint.com: Shipments seizure of Pharmaceuticals: India’s drug makers may avoid EU route - by Lison Joseph

For the complete report from livemint.com click on this link

Shipments seizure of Pharmaceuticals: India’s drug makers may avoid EU route - by Lison Joseph

A new battleground seems to have opened up over shipments of India’s drug exporters meant for Latin America that are being seized in transit by European Union (EU) countries. In the last one month alone, Chandigarh-based Ind-Swift Laboratories Ltd and several other Mumbai-based bulk drug makers—all of them small- and medium-sized firms—have had their shipments seized at EU ports, according to the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil), an agency set up by India’s commerce ministry.

“In the last couple of months, we have been receiving an increasing number of reports from pharma exporters about their consignments being seized in European Union countries including Germany, France, the UK and the Netherlands,” said Pharmexcil executive director P.V. Appaji.Munjal and Pharmexcil said the reason EU authorities have given for the seizures was that these drug consignments violated intellectual property rights and were, therefore, counterfeit. Pharmexcil, on its part, says the seized products—meant for largely unregulated Latin American markets—are genuine and legal.

“These are not substandard or in anyway of compromised quality. Besides, they are not meant for the European market but are just using EU ports while in transit to markets in Latin America, where they do not violate any laws,” Appaji claimed.

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