Health care majors look towards Punjab

The coming Medicity in New Chandigarh was the centre of attraction with maximum queries coming for it

Punjab is all set to emerge as the new pharmaceutical hub, with major health sector players such as Biocon, Ranbaxy, Max, Merck eying state for their major investment plans in the next three years.

Taking part in the Progressive Punjab Investors' Summit, organised by the state government held here on Monday, the multintional companies said they saw Punjab as the most preferred destination for investment as the state offered the best incentives in the health care sector.

The upcoming Medicity in New Chandigarh was the centre of attraction with maximum queries coming for it.

Speaking at the session on health care, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, MD of Biocon Ltd, said her company was looking for investing Rs 3,000 crore for expansion of its facilities, especially in the area of oral insulin and setting up of a integrated bio-pharmaceutical company with research focus on diabetes, oncology and auto-immune diseases.

She said she was impressed with the focus of Punjab on human resource development that was the backbone of knowledge-based industry. She said her pet project was regenerative medicines used in tissue repairs. Mazumdar said after making country self-sufficient on food security front, Punjab has potential to make India self-sufficient in pharma sector by focusing on genetic industry.

Addressing the session, K G Anantkrishnan, president and managing director Merck & Co Inc. said Punjab had potential to move from 'farmer to pharma' and was the right place to develop full holistic pharma hub of the country. He said Merck was planning to set up Diabetes Control Centre in Punjab to train general physicians in diabetes management.

Speaking about the expansion programme of Max Health Care, Dr. Ajay Bakshi, MD and CEO, said the company was already having substantial presence in Punjab and had chalked out an expansion programme in the state. He said with the active participation of the government, Max India had launched door-to-door drive in the state to identify and screen cancer patients on early stage so that their rehabilitation and treatment could be started at the earliest.

Unveiling the healthcare policy, Health Secretary Vini Mahajan said Punjab was the only state that offered best incentives to the pharma industry and health care sector and provided single-window service for fast track clearances of such proposals. She sought proposals from investors for digitalisation of health care records of all government hospitals and also sought investment proposals in massive health policy of BPL families of the state.