BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbados has joined several other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries that have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with India aimed at regulating the type of medicines imported into the island.
Health and Wellness Minister Lisa Cummins and India’s High Commissioner to Barbados, Subhash P. Gupta, signed the agreement, which is expected to deepen the relationship between the two countries on matters related to quality control standards 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 on the manufacturing of generic drugs in Barbados, which will help reduce the cost of medicines and create opportunities for technical cooperation in areas of mutual benefit to both countries.
The Health Minister spoke of 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 develop the more substantive relationships between the commercial partners and the manufacturers in India and our Barbadian domestic sector,” Cummins stated.
Gupta said that India had signed similar agreements with other countries, including Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and St. Lucia, adding that a similar arrangement had been implemented on a mass scale in India 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 Indian diplomat said.
He said he was looking forward to working with Bridgetown on other issues under consideration, including the supply of haemodialysis machines, cancer therapy equipment, and mobile hospitals.
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