Pharma costs, R&D in focus

Extending healthcare facilities and access to medicine in remote areas along with making cheaper and affordable molecules are issues that need to be addressed to enable India achieve global leadership in the pharmaceutical industry by 2020, said experts at an interactive session organised by Institute of pharmaceutical and healthcare management and research (IPHMR) in Kolkata, on Thursday.

Pharmaceutical markets need to emerge with improving affordability, medical infrastructure and changing medical paradigms, they added. N R Madhava Menon of the commission on centre state relations said, "India is poised for global leadership in spheres like pharmaceuticals, in generic drugs, research and development, clinical research and in the emerging area of contract research and manufacturing services." For this, industry should help in establishing more universities, upto 1500 as against 380 universities now, added Menon. This required back up from industry and collaboration with academia, he added.

S Bhattacharya of Merck and Company said India as one of the emerging markets along with Mexico, Russia, Poland, Turkey and Brazil, contributed about seven per cent to the pharma industry ten years ago, about one third currently and was expected to contribute about 40-45 per cent within the next 20 years. In 10 years, these economies will contribute about $300 billion to the pharmaceutical industry, as against $80 billion now, he added. Merck director Shiv Kuma called for balancing research and development (R&D) investment and prices of molecules, helping patients increase their purchasing power and making medicines accessible to remote areas.