By Pankaj Yadav

NEW DELHI, May 8 (Xinhua) -- India is committed to promoting its pharmaceutical exports to untapped markets, including China, said Indian companies at a three-day international exhibition of pharma and healthcare (iPHEX) which kicked off on Tuesday.

The exhibition has been organized by the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (PHARMEXCIL) in which more than 650 delegates from 130 countries and regions are participating.

China has exempted import tariffs for 28 drugs, including all cancer drugs, from May 1, which was seen as a good news for India's pharmaceutical industry and medicine export to China, as it would help in reducing trade imbalance between China and India in the future.

Leading Indian companies participating in Tuesday's event hailed and welcomed China's move saying it would benefit both sides, as it would address India's trade imbalance and also China would get quality drugs at much lesser prices.

Dr Dinesh Dua, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Nectar Lifesciences Ltd. based in Chandigarh city in northern India, said that he expected China, which is the second largest drugs market after the United States, would benefit a lot as Indian drugs prices are excellent.

Indian companies can do excellent business in the next years in China, which augurs really well for the Indian pharmaceutical companies, he added.

Besides cancer drugs, Due said, other drugs which India can export to China include "monoclonol antibodies" and also "chemotherapeutic agents" which Indian companies are very successfully making for other countries at a fraction of cost which innovators are making available.

"The multinational companies (MNCs) are making available these generic drugs in China as local generic companies can't make them. India has proven to the rest of the world, so China will too greatly benefit by Indian pricing and quality of drugs coming in at a fraction of cost of the MNCs," Dua said.

According to official figures, during the 11 months from April 2017 to January 2018, the pharma exports were recorded at 10.76 billion U.S. dollars in India. The exports are expected to grow by 30 percent over the next three years to reach 20 billion U.S.dollars by 2020.

Indian pharmaceutical sector is estimated to account for 3.1-3.6 percent of the global pharmaceutical industry in value terms, and 10 percent in volume terms.

India is believed to be the largest provider of generic drugs globally with the Indian generics accounting for 20 percent of global exports in terms of volume.

In India cost of production of pharmaceutical items is nearly 33 percent lower than that of the United States, labor costs are 50-55 percent cheaper than in western countries. And, also the cost of setting up a production plant in India is 40 percent lower than in the West.