Singapore: Japanese companies are keen to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies in India. A delegation of pharmaceutical firms from Japan's Toyama prefecture was in New Delhi on June 13 for a meeting with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in India. Toyama prefecture is an industrial cluster on Honshu Island of Japan.

Mr Yasuhiko Shioi, president, Kokando leader of the Japanese pharmaceutical delegation to India indicated that Japanese companies were keen to collaborate in trade and technology development.
Addressing the FICCI meeting, he said Indian and Japanese companies could also undertake joint market research and product development for world market as also jointly develop new technologies.

Dr Shoichiro Hamano, president, Hamano International, gave a presentation on ‘Pharmaceutical Business in Toyama'. Toyama is recognized as the ‘Cluster City of Pharmaceutical Industry' in Japan. "We are looking for long term partnerships with Indian companies. There is immense scope of exporting Japanese products to Indian market and similarly Indian products can be traded in the Japanese market," he said.

There are 89 pharmaceutical manufacturers with approximately 9,000 employees in Japan. Their annual pharmaceutical output is $ 76 billion.

While making a presentation on ‘Overview of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry', Mr Daara Patel, secretary general, Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association (IDMA), said pharmaceutical is a knowledge-based industry and India is one of the world's largest and most developed in this sector. He highlighted that India's growing respect and legal or regulatory framework for IPR, favorable economic policies and availability of huge talent pool for sustaining and growing operations are making India an attractive choice for global pharma companies for investment, tie-ups, mergers and acquisitions.