Azerbaijan which heavily depends on pharmaceutical import has offered tremendous opportunities for Indian drug manufacturers exporting products to Russian and European markets.

Instructions on the packaging on the drugs in Azerbaijan are allowed to be in four languages -- Russian, English, Turkish and Azerbaijani which create an opportunity to sell drugs intended for the Russian and European market in Azerbaijan, said Uday Bhaskar, director general, Pharmexcil.

Azerbaijan has no national pharmacopoeia and refers to other countries’ national pharmacopoeia. Azerbaijan has re-started registration of Indian drugs since 2016. It registered 197 Indian drugs by the end of 2020.

Indian drug makers -- Agio Pharmaceuticals, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals India, Serum Institute of India, Sun Pharma, Brawn Laboratories, Bharat Parenterals, Rivpra Formulation, Unique Pharmaceutical Laboratories (a venture of JB Chemicals), Saga Lifesciences registered their drugs in Azerbaijan.

In recent years, foreign companies started considering Azerbaijan not only as a market but also as a prospective place for deployment of production facilities and a hub for accessing the pharmaceutical markets of neighbouring republics, including Iran, said Bhaskar.

In 2020, Azerbaijan imported pharmaceutical products worth US$ 377 million increasing 27.2 per cent compared to 2019.  Total import of pharmaceutical products from India was US$ 14.9 million sharing 4 per cent in Azerbaijan’s global import of pharmaceutical products.

Import of human vaccines was US$ 4.032 million. India accounted for 44.5 per cent of total vaccine imports of Azerbaijan exporting to the country in the amount of US$ 1.794 million human vaccines.

Azerbaijan imported animal vaccines in the amount of US$ 16.3 million increasing the volume of import by two times compared to last year. In 2020, Azerbaijan imported from Turkey animal vaccine in the amount of US$ 9 million which was 55.2 per cent of the import. Other exporters were France sharing 10.1 per cent, Netherlands sharing 7.5 per cent, Israel sharing 5.2 per cent and Jordan sharing 4.1 per cent. There is potential for Indian vaccines in the market, said director general, Pharmexcil.