The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Prithviraj Chavan and special guest of honor, Mr Rajeev Kher, additional secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry in the presence of Dr G N Singh, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) inaugurated iPHEX 2013, India's own pharmaceutical show organized by the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil). iPHEX 2013 is held in Mumbai from April 24-26, 2013 at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon East, Mumbai.

IPHEX 2013 will witness the presence of 250 stalls exhibiting Indian Pharma companies like Ranbaxy, Lupin, Glenmark, Mylan, MSN Labs, Ipca, Ind-Swift, Strides, Aurobindo, Mankind, to mention few, over 5,000 trade visitors including overseas buyer, delegates from highly regulated market like USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and 3,000 Pharmexcil registered members. Over 500 overseas buyers have been invited with the support of Ministry of Commerce and Industry Government of India. About 60 percent of stalls belong to SMEs which present a very robust, competent and competitive Indian pharma sector. Huge business opportunities are expected to emerge during the event.

Additionally, over 40 senior regulatory from 20 countries like Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippine, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Seychelles, Uganda, Belaru, Haiti, Cuba, Dominic Republic, Mongolia, Srilanka, Zimbabwe, Ministry of Health officials and drug regulators chief from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujrat, Karnataka are present for IPHEX-2013. The presence of large number of drug regulators from overseas market is set to help Pharmexcil and its members to promote the quality and affordability aspect as envisaged in Brand India Pharma Campaign. The campaign has been initiated by the Ministry of Commerce and executed by Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council in association with India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF).

Elaborating on what differentiates iPHEX, Dr P V Appaji director general, Pharmexcil says, "iPHEX is slightly different from other international events held in India. In iPHEX, we are inviting overseas buyers at our cost and organizing one-to-one meeting with the buyers, organizing technical conferences where the invited drug regulators will be making presentations about drug regulatory procedures in their respective countries, for the benefit of Indian pharma industry. The unique point of iPHEX is that exhibitors are assured of fixed meetings with invited buyers from overseas countries. Indian Pharma Industry would immensely get benefited as there would be over 400 genuine pharma buyers and drug regulators from various countries and exhibitors would be having one-to-one meetings with them."

On this occasion, Mr Bhavin Mehta, committee chief of iPHEX and CoA member, Pharmexcil added, "iPHEX 2013 will be the biggest industry exposition in India showcasing the diverse range of products and will include formulations, APIs, Ayush, nutraceuticals, health services, biotechnology and biotechnology products, and R&D services. Plan visits also will be organized for the interested drug regulators. iPHEX will be an annual event. Our attempt is to make iPHEX a face of Indian Pharma to the global community. We are sure to achieve this over the years."

iPHEX 2013 is being organized by Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (PHARMEXCIL) under the support of Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Commerce, Government of India. Pharmexcil is a nodal agency to represent Indian Drugs, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare industry globally. It is mandated to help over 3,800 of its members to achieve excellence in export and facilitate overseas buyers to find suitable trade partners from Indian pharma industry.