BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, (GIS) – Barbados and India further strengthened their cooperation with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at parliament recently, which will regulate the type of medicines imported into the island. Minister of health and wellness, senator Lisa Cummins, and India’s High Commissioner to Barbados, Subhash P. Gupta, signed the agreement expected to deepen the relationship between the two countries on matters relating to standards of quality control for generic and other medicines.
Barbados has pledged to accept the Indian Pharmacopoeia as a book of standards for medicines as it relates to the type of medicines being imported into Barbados. Additionally, it is to be relied upon as a guiding standard for the manufacturing of drugs in Barbados.
The standards will also be used as a reference guide when the Barbados Drug Regulatory Authority becomes operational. India will provide guidance for the manufacturing of generic drugs in Barbados which will help to reduce the cost of medicines and provide opportunities for technical cooperation in areas of mutual benefit to both countries.
The health minister credited former minister of health, senator Dr Jerome Walcott and officials from the ministries of health and foreign affairs and foreign trade for facilitating the development of the MOU. The minister also referenced India’s support to Barbados during the COVID-19 pandemic by supplying vaccines to the island at a time when the supply chain and access to drugs were “severely constrained”.
“This step is an important one in solidifying that relationship [between Barbados and India], moving specifically towards accepting and exchanging standards that govern the two respective countries as it relates to medicines. And, to be in a position to then develop more substantive relationships between the commercial partners and the manufacturers in India and our Barbadian domestic sector,” senator Cummins stated.
High Commissioner Gupta explained that India had signed similar agreements with other countries, including Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Saint Lucia. A similar arrangement was implemented in India on a mass scale and had been very successful.
“The main purpose of the MOU is to secure quality medicine at an affordable price from India. We always believe in the Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam philosophy that the world is one family… so we offer the same kind of mechanism to [other] nations,” the High Commissioner explained.
High Commissioner Gupta added that he looked forward to working with senator Cummins on other issues under consideration, including the supply of haemodialysis machines, cancer therapy equipment and mobile hospitals.
