Ambassador Vincenzo Prati said this while speaking at a presentation made by the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) here on Thursday.
He said Italy has converted its $100 million loan for Pakistan through debt swap sometime back and $10 million have been allocated from that amount for this project. He pointed out that an Italian manufacturer of self-destructive syringes has been identified and now his government is looking for Pakistani partner for this joint venture.
Responding to the demand of the PPMA for arranging meetings of Pakistani pharmaceutical manufacturers and Italian pharmaceutical companies for joint ventures in technical fields, Prati said he was very willing to extend support in this regard.
“However, I need serious people from the PPMA, having concrete proposals for joint ventures in specific fields and they must first contact Italian companies and then let me know,” he added. He said low cost of production in Pakistan coupled with very high quality of Italian products would form the ideal joint ventures.
Prati said the Italian embassy will invite Italian Health Minister end of January or early February 2010 to visit Pakistan in reciprocation to the earlier visit of Pakistani Health Minister to Italy. He said a seminar could be held on “opportunities for joint ventures in pharmaceutical field in Pakistan” during the visit of the Italy’s minister.
He said large Italian pharma companies can come to Pakistan and three to four big projects in pharmaceutical fields can be discussed with Pakistani partners during that seminar. Prati said an Italian thalassemia physician is working in Pakistan to help local hospitals fight against this disease.
Earlier, Chairman of PPMA Zahid Saeed in his presentation urged the ambassador to help in joint ventures in various pharmaceutical fields including biotech facilities, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and clinical research organisation (CROs).
He said all the major multinational pharmaceutical companies from all over the world are operating in Pakistan except Italian companies. He said pharmaceutical business was growing at a rate of 21 per cent and there were bright prospects for Pak-Italy joint ventures in this field.