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Regulatory reforms, more focus and funding on research and development especially in the biopharmaceutical sector, better Intellectual Property regime, strengthened supply chain, support to start ups and better talent pool are the requisites to achieve the goals set by the government for the pharmaceutical sector in the country, says industry leaders.
Speaking in a session on Indian Pharma - Vision 2047, in the second day of the seventh edition of India Pharma and Indian Medical Device 2022, organised by the Department of Pharmaceuticals and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Pankaj Patel, chairman of Zydus Lifesciences, said that in order to achieve $130 billion in 2030, the industry needs to grow at 12-13 per cent and it needs the industry to move from volume game to value game with importance to innovation.
The government should look at regulatory reforms, giving more powers to the industry to conduct research without regulatory interference till the time of clinical trials. For instance, there is no need for a test license for the companies to conduct research, and the regulated markets have no such regulatory measures. The government has no role to play before the drug reaches the clinical trial stage, he added.
Research is a risky venture with high investments required and in India, even the highest valued drug does not have a Rs. 1,000 crore market. Without such a market, the companies cannot do research and in order to create such a market, industries like insurance have to grow. There is also a need for funding drug research for neglected and rare diseases. There is also a need to create a single large research platform for India and create policies which can support innovation. The public research organisations should also lead the research activities in the newer technologies, he added.
Gagandeep Singh, managing director AstraZeneca Pharma India and chair, FICCI Pharma Committee, also said that there is a need for regulatory reforms, such as for standardisation of pharma manufacturing in a better manner. A bulletproof IP ecosystem is a requirement for the envisaged growth and incremental innovation should be accepted. The demographic advantage of India should be used to fast track some of the R&D activities in the country, in order to be a global leader in the pharmaceutical market in the next 25 years, he added.
Vita chi Shah, national president of Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA), said that the growth of the pharma sector needs strengthening of supply chain, availability of proper talent pool, improving efficiency through automation, more research and better implementation of technology, which could result in paperless manufacturing activity, among others. The industry should aim to move from the number three position in pharma manufacturing in the globe to number one, at least in terms of off-patented products in future, he added.
Sanjay Murdeshwar, managing director of Novartis India said that India, which currently supplies 20 per cent of the world's generic medicines, should aim at 20 percent of innovations in the industry happening in the country by 2047. Discovery and innovation are mostly done by the biotech start ups across the globe, as they are nimble and are able to take more risk. There should be thousands of such start ups in India, from which the translational research can be taken up by the larger companies. Funding for the biotech start ups, and a bulletproof IP system are also needed to accelerate growth of the industry in the country.
Siddharth Mittal, CEO and managing director of Biocon said that in the last five years, the opportunity from biotech drugs going off patent was of $25 billion, which is expected to go up to $70 billion for the next five years. To capture that opportunity, the industry does not have the luxury of waiting till 2047. The investment and time required for development of bio products are larger in comparison to the chemical drugs and the companies with their balance sheets already under pressure due to various aspects, need a proper ecosystem including availability of proper skill in order to develop the right product at the right cost.
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