The Hindu Business Line : Dutch bio-medical mission to visit India

A large Dutch bio-medical mission, consisting of Dutch biotech companies, would be visiting India from June 6-9, according to Ms Desiree Bonis, Deputy Head of Mission and Head of Economic Affairs, Royal Netherlands Embassy at New Delhi.

The visit of the delegation is aimed at exploring new business contacts in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector. As a part of this mission's programme, the Netherlands would also be represented at the Bangalore Bio with a Holland Pavilion, she said.

Ms Bonis was addressing a seminar on `Doing business with Netherlands: Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals' jointly organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Royal Netherlands Embassy here on Friday.

She said the Netherlands is a highly developed industrial country and one of the largest traders and investors in the world. Holland, which is considered the `Gateway to Europe', is among the 15 largest economies of the world. Stating that Holland has been the largest investor in the US for many years, she said it is now the third largest investor in India. It is home to several multinationals such as Shell, Unilever, Philips, AKZO Nobel, DSM, ABN Amro, ING and Rabobank, she said.

According to the Senior Policy Advisor in the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs, Mr R.M.F. van de Laar, the room for expansion and growth exists especially in the life sciences sector, an increasingly important sector for the Dutch economy.

There are currently about 400 companies specialising in biotechnology research and development in Netherlands.

Shift to India

The Dutch major PharmaMatch BV's Country Head, Mr Irfan Vazirally, said many of the European pharmaceutical companies would like to shift their development, sourcing of materials and manufacturing activities to India aimed at improving their margins. Similarly, several Indian development and manufacturing companies are keen to establish their presence in Europe.

PharmaMatch BV, which is into matching two pharmaceutical companies - the customer and the manufacturer, is assisting European customers by improvement of margins on generic products by transferring production to India. It is also helping the European companies source pharmaceutical active materials from India for the European markets and finding Indian partners to develop new products jointly with European customers.

Further, PharmaMatch is also finding European partners for Indian manufacturers who wish to market their products in the EU, he said.

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