Pharmaceuticals is one area the government will addressing during the India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) that will be hosted in Port Moresby on the 21st and 23rd of May, 2023.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Justin Tkatchenko, stated that Health Minister, Dr Lino Tom, will be a part of the bilateral discussion when the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in PNG.
Tkatchenko stated that India is one of the biggest producers of medicine and chemicals in the world and PNG need to discuss on working directly with manufacturers for the benefit of supplying good quality medicine for the people.
“India is one of the biggest producer of Medicine and chemicals in the world and Pharmaceutical products and with that you’ll probably see a lot of our chemist supply these products which are not inferior like some they have a very good reputation and they go through the proper screening and process and definitely if you do cut out the middle man people will definitely benefit much more than they are now.
“So I’m sure these discussions will definitely be had were we can work direct with manufacturers for the benefit of supplying good quality medicine for our people.
“We’ll leave that to the Health Minister to take on, I know he’s working hard on that and this will be a bonus for Health Ministry for having the Prime Minister here and we can do it in the future with pharmaceuticals,” said Tkatchenko.