Elder Pharma, Russian co in pact for healthcare cooperation

Drug firm Elder Pharmaceuticals Ltd today said it has inked an agreement with Russia's Holding PharmaEco for bilateral co-operation in the healthcare sector.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two companies was signed as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit for the 13th annual Indo-Russian bilateral summit here, Elder Pharma said in a statement.

Commenting on the agreement, Elder Pharmaceuticals Ltd Joint Managing Director Alok Saxena said: "India has already become most reliable supplier of quality drugs to Russia and potential for enhanced exports is promising."

Holding PharmaEco is one of the leading healthcare companies in Russia and has six subsidiaries. The company is into distribution of medicines, equipment and various other medical products.

The company's annual turnover for the last year stood at USD 1.12 billion and it employs more than 800 people across countries.

Under Pharma 2020 programme of the Russian government, leading Indian pharma companies have started engaging with Russian partners to consider possibility of joint investments.

India and Russia are in the process of liberalising registration of new drugs in order to boost bilateral trade in pharmaceutical sector. The Russian pharmaceutical market is estimated to be around USD 18 billion in 2010. Due to lack of locally manufactured products, the country heavily depends on imported drugs.

As per estimates, India has a meagre share of 3 percent of the total USD 12 billion drugs that Russia imports. As per data available with the Department of Commerce, bilateral trade with Russia in the last fiscal witnessed an increase of 21 percent and stood at USD 6.4 billion.