Terror Attacks Postpone Mumbai Conference and Raise Concern over Outsourcing

London, England (Nov. 27)-Industry experts are predicting that last week’s terror attacks in Mumbai, India may have at minimum some short-term effects on the pharmaceutical industry outsourcing business in that region. Already, CMP Information, part of United Business Media, has postponed the pharmaceutical conference CPhI India until next year. The conference was scheduled to take place Nov. 27 to Nov. 30; however, the group cited the “current adverse security situation” as reason for the event’s postponement. Another conference, the Drug Information Association’s 3rd Annual Meeting on Drug Discovery and Clinical Development in India, scheduled for Dec. 7-10, 2008, was also postponed until further notice.

Although no other industry decisions have been announced in the wake of the events, some fear continued instability in the region will hurt the region’s position as a viable outsourcing site. Speaking with Mumbai’s business newspaperBusiness Standard, Sujay Shetty, head of life sciences at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: “Executives of global companies may be asked to refrain from coming to India, and many planned visits have been cancelled.”

The report also quotes Ranjit Shahani, president of Indian Merchant’s Chamber and vice-chairman and managing director of Novartis India, “Such repeated terrorist attacks will mar our business prospects, especially from Fortune 500 companies … [and] add more worries to our economic growth.”