Cipla urges govt to increase funds, ease policies for domestic pharma firms

Homegrown drug major Cipla has urged the government to increase fund allocation for the healthcare sector, improve ease of doing business and formulate policies that aid the domestic pharmaceutical industry.

Addressing shareholders in the company's Annual Report for 2018-19, Cipla Chairman Y K Hamied said basic healthcare in the country will always require urgent attention given its population and disease burden.

"India should formulate legislation on healthcare to suit the specific needs of the indigenous pharma industry as also the healthcare required in the country. An increase in the Government's public healthcare expenditure is the need of the hour," the industry veteran said.

Echoing the sentiment, Cipla Executive Vice-Chairperson Samina Vaziralli said with the government returning for a second consecutive five-year term armed with a strong mandate, expectations are high.

"As a pharma company, we look forward to support in strengthening infrastructure and ease of doing business, developing a robust regulatory framework, increasing healthcare expenditure, and balancing of pricing controls with provision of accessible and affordable healthcare," she said.

The company is also eager to explore ways to partner with the government in its ambitious healthcare schemes to ensure coverage to the maximum extent possible, Vaziralli added.

Commenting on business aspects, Cipla Managing Director and Global CEO Umang Vohra said the drug major eyes growth in various emerging markets like China.

"We have spoken about our ambitions in China as a future growth market. We are keen to take our well-established expertise in the respiratory segment to patients in China," Vohra said.

Simultaneously, the company will also explore various routes to build a portfolio of products in China in other therapeutic areas such as oncology, he added.

The company said it plans to grow private market business in Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America. In Brazil, it aims to focus on oncology while eyeing partnerships in the biosimilar field in its key markets.

Currently, Cipla's core markets India, South Africa and US continue to anchor its growth, Vohra said.

In India, the company said it will focus on therapeutic segments like diabetes, dermatology, cardiology and women's health. In South Africa, the company aims to scale up its over the counter (OTC) business and also continue momentum in private market.

Besides, the company said its next leg of growth in the US will be driven by opportunities in the respiratory and central nervous system (CNS) therapeutic areas, where its internal R&D driven contributions to the complex generics and specialty segment portfolios will play a key role.

The company said it will also continue driving cost efficiencies through various initiatives and drive operational efficiencies through a lean model, use of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics.