Felicitates six industry stakeholders and institutions
Usha Sharma – Mumbai
South Asian Chapter of American College of Clinical Pharmacology (SAC-ACCP) recently organised its eighth annual international conference on ‘Translational Clinical Pharmacology Research in Drug Development’ at Nehru Centre in Mumbai. It also felicitated six industry stakeholders and institutions for their valuable contribution to the Indian pharmaceutical industry.
The theme for the this year’s conference was ‘Translational Clinical Pharmacology for Drug Development’. The chief guest for the event was Dr GB Parulkar, senior cardiologist from Mumbai.
Pankaj Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Zydus Cadila, Dilip Shanghvi, Founder and Managing Director, Sun Pharma, Glenn Saldanha, Chairman and Managing Director, Glenmark, Dr Ram Vishwakarma, Director, CDRI Lucknow, Dr Vishwa Mohan Katoch, Former Secretary to the Government of India (Department of Health Research Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) and Director General Indian Council of Medical Research and Dr Maharaj Kishan Bhan, National Science Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi were honoured by SAC-ACCP for ‘Leadership in Drug Discovery and Development’, ‘Visionary in Drug Discovery Development’, ‘Innovator Entrepreneur’, ‘Outstanding Translational Research Institute’ and ‘Leadership in Health Research’ respectively. Dr Nilima Kshirsagar, President SAC-ACCP, welcomed the dignitaries. She informed that the American College of Clinical Pharmacology started its South Asian Chapter in Mumbai in 2006. She added, “Out of 10 drugs which go for clinical trials, only one may reach the market. According to World Health Organization’s (WHO) priority medicine report, there are 16 important disease conditions prevalent for which drug therapies are lacking or inadequate. On the other hand, cost and complexity of developing new pharma and diagnostics have escalated. As per WHO estimates, half of the available drugs are not used correctly and even in the US, 15-20 per cent cannot afford medicines due to cost factor.”
Patel said, “There are ample opportunities in the industry and we need to work on time. India completely relies on medicines from the developed western countries and now the time has come to show the world that even India can discover a drug. Indian researchers and industry stakeholders should work together and discover new drugs which can be used by western countries also.”
Bhan, National Science Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and former Secretary, Department of Biotechnology Government of India, informed about the challenges which he and his team members faced during the development of rota virus vaccine. He continued, “When the central government is reducing healthcare budget almost 20 per cent every year we need to work together and develop new drugs to make them understand that the work is being carried and can divert their attention in the long run.”
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