Prabhu, who is presently touring Switzerland to promote the chemical show, Indiachem 2000, to be held in New Delhi in October, has made presentations to the pharmaceutical sector on India's potential in research and development, manpower availability and growing pharma exports.

According to sources, Swiss economic minister Pascal Couchepin has shown keen interest in encouraging investments in the pharma sector in India. In a meeting with Prabhu, the minister said that India was an ideal investment destination for pharma companies as it had a good legal system, a large number of English speaking people and offered R&D facilities at very competitive rates.

Prabhu also met representatives from the Swiss Society of Chemical Industries (SGCI), the pharmaceutical giant Novartis' board member Alexander Gaetzer and senior officials of Sulizer Medica, the world's biggest orthopedic and process equipment producer, an official release said. All of them raised the issue of the implementation of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in India.

Prabhu informed the industry members that amendment to the patent law have already been made in March 1999 during the transition period. He added that Parliament was likely to pass a bill on new intellectual property rights soon to bring patent protection in India closer to the TRIPS legislation well before the deadline of 2005.

Novartis and SGCI members have agreed to participate in Indiachem 2000. Novartis has also agreed to invest in major projects in the country.

According to the release, Swiss pharma industry representatives have said that they accorded high acceptability to the scientific environment in India and the comparative cost advantage of doing research and development in Indian institutions. They said that once the issue of patent protection was settled, Swiss companies would look into the possibilities of setting up major research facilities in India.