Colombia to seek affordable meds and vaccine know-how from India

The Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez of Colombia accompanied by a large delegation with 35 members are reaching India over the weekend. Confirming the visit, a top diplomat of that country told Financial Express Online, “It is a very large delegation including Minister of Health Fernando Ruiz and the Minister of Science and Technology Tito José Crissien, representatives of national university, some private institutions, group of companies that are committed to vaccine production in Colombia and others.”

Besides New Delhi, the delegation led by Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez, who also heads the Colombian Space Commission (CCE), will visit Hyderabad, Pune and Bengaluru before heading back to their country.

Several agreements are expected to be inked in New Delhi at the end of talks with the top leadership of India including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, her Indian counterpart Dr S Jaishankar and other officials.

What is on the agenda of visits to other cities?

In Bengaluru, the focus will be on the recent MoU on Cooperation in the exploration and use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes signed between Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) and Colombia’s Space Commission along with their Ministry of Science and Technology.

In Pune and Hyderabad the companies are going to visit various vaccine manufacturers and will focus on all kinds of vaccines, capacity building, participate in clinical trials as well as medical devices like Stents.

“We are keen on manufacturing vaccines under the PPP model and for that there is likely to be a MoU signed during this visit. Colombia is looking for affordable life saving drugs and this includes not only cancer, dengue, but other tropical diseases,” the diplomat quoted above shared.

Colombia and various companies are looking for exchange of best practices and learning the know-how of manufacturing vaccines locally. They are keen on getting to know how to set up the eco-system for the production of all kinds of vaccines including COVID-19.

Earlier this month during the visit of MOS Meenakshi Lekhi to that country, both sides have already identified various sectors for deepening cooperation in sectors including pharmaceuticals, bio-technology, education and sports, agriculture, defence and security as well as the empowerment of women.

India-Colombia Trade Agreement

According to sources, the feasibility study for having a Partial Scope Trade agreement is already complete. “The two sides have yet to take a decision on dates to start discussions,” a senior officer confirmed to Financial Express Online.

As reported earlier, India has also been focusing on increasing imports of crude for the Latin American region to up to 50 per cent to meet its energy requirements. India and South American nation Colombia are cooperating in the oil sector and have identified areas including production and exploration of oil; processing, refining, and purification of hydro-carbons.

ONGC is already present in the South American nation and has operations in the Llanos field in Orinoco region and owns 50 per cent of the Mansarovar – which is a joint venture with a Chinese company Sinopec. This project is located in Magdalena Medio.