Pharma giants worried about India’s generic expertise: Sharma

India's growing share of pharmaceutical exports to Africa have caused concern among multinational companies, which are campaigning against generic medicines from the country, commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma has said.

In a pointed statement, he told the Indo-Africa pharma business meet in Hyderabad on Friday that MNCs are campaigning against Indian medicines as being "counterfeit and substandard".

Sharma said that in the generics field, Indian companies had established their lead in most markets, including Africa. ''The growing exports of India in African countries are causing concern in multinational companies who have started a false campaign that the Indian generic medicines are counterfeit and substandard. This has to be countered effectively,'' he said.

The minister added that core sectors of the economy - such as consumer durables, automobiles, pharmacy, and chemicals and engineering goods - had registered double-digit growth in the last three months.

On the overall performance of the pharmaceutical sector, the minister said export of drugs, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals from the country rose 29 per cent to Rs39,538 crore (around $9.35 billion) during 2008-09.

"In recent times the Indian pharmaceutical sector has emerged as one of the major contributors to Indian exports with export earnings rising from a negligible amount in early 1990s to Rs29,139.57 crore ($7.24 billion) by 2007-08," Sharma told the conference.