Industry body FICCI and Australia-India business body AIBC Thursday jointly organised a roundtable on 'Opportunities and Challenges in Pharmaceutical Partnerships between India and Australia' to promote Make in India initiative.

During the India-Australia Summit in June 2020, bilateral cooperation between India and Australia has been elevated from Strategic Partnership to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Taking the momentum forward, both FICCI and Australia India Business Council (AIBC) have initiated 'Comprehensive Business Partnership' - a joint effort under Make in India initiative.

The purpose of organizing the roundtable was to facilitate an active and mutually beneficial interaction between Indian and Australian companies to constructively deliberate and share best practices and successfully identify sector-specific challenges and opportunities that lies ahead.

Pharmaceutical sector is of utmost importance in today's scenario. India is the 3rd largest pharmaceuticals industry in the world by volume.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry has contributed significantly to global healthcare market by ensuring high quality, affordable and accessible medicines around the world.

On the other hand, the life sciences sector is a sector of strategic priority for Australia as well.

Its competitive and path breaking research can offer huge opportunities for India to build meaningful collaborations.

The discussions of the Roundtable meeting centered around the key areas of collaboration such as R&D and innovation, clinical trials, affordable generics and biosimilars, harmonization of regulatory practices and the increasing emphasis on alternative medicines in the prevailing pandemic situation.

Australian participants highlighted that Ayurvedic, herbals and botanicals are the new emerging areas for collaboration for India-Australia as healthcare is addressed in more holistic manner by consumers with changing patterns of lifestyle disorders.

Australian side also stressed on the collaboration between two countries in the areas of standards especially medical labelling, generics, community pharmacies.

The Indian industry raised the issue of recognition of Indian pharmaceuticals by Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia in view of the approval of pharma manufacturing plants by USFDA.

The meeting concluded with both sides agreeing to lay more emphasis on the clinical trials and the conducive regulatory environment for harmonization provided by India and Australia.