Team heads to Africa on quality mission

NEW DELHI: India is sending a delegation to African countries to put in place a fool-proof system regarding the sealing and packaging of export consignments in light of a recent incident where Chinese-made spurious drugs carrying ���Made in India��� labels were seized by Nigerian authorities.

���We have already sent letters to our ambassadors in Africa asking them to talk to officials on quality norms and regulatory procedures. An official delegation from the department will be sent to countries like Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria soon to take up the issue in details with relevant authorities,��� a commerce department official told ET asking not to be named.

���A system has to be worked out to ensure that unscrupulous suppliers do not tarnish India���s image as a quality drug producing country,��� the official said.

Africa accounts for over 15% of India���s total generic (off-patent drugs) exports worth Rs 30,000 crore annually.
Last month, Nigeria seized a large consignment of fake anti-malarial drugs labelled ���Made in India��� but later it was traced to China. India demanded that China should take strict action against the manufacturers whose names and addresses were printed on the confiscated cartons.

The Kenyan government had seized two container loads of medicines shipped from Shanghai bearing a ���Government of Kenya��� label.

���Supply of spurious drugs to Africa is on the rise. Urgent steps have to be taken to ensure that India���s reputation as a reliable supplier of high quality and cheap medicines is not ruined. The sooner we act, the better for us,��� the official said.