Address by Guest of Honour

In his address to the audience, Satish Agarwal, President (Tech and Operations), Ajanta Pharma, said, “At the time of independence, we were heavily dependent on the western world and global giants for our medicinal requirements. The medicine availability was less and highly expensive. A gradual evolution made us a global leader in the pharma space, particularly in formulation and APIs. 20 per cent of global pharma exports is being taken care of by India. An estimated 40 per cent generic drugs available in the US are produced by Indian manufacturers.”

He further stated that India has the largest number of the US FDA-approved units outside of the US, and this has generated a trade surplus of $70 billion, which helped our economy to have a trade surplus during the oil crisis.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, people at large, in the world, were looking at India for the cost-effective medicines and vaccines and we have delivered it. There was an unprecedented collaboration between the government and the industry, and that has made us an uninterrupted supply of the medicine during the lockdown. There was a special cell created between the pharma industry and the government to oversee the day-to-day operations and make sure that every hurdle in the supply of the medicine is eradicated,” he highlighted.

He concluded his talk by saying, “It is estimated that in this decade we are going to reach $120 – $130 billion by 2030. Pharma industry is growing, and is going to have a great future, but, with the growth, we will have challenges too and the challenge is sustainability. We can have sustainability only through digitisation, innovation and optimisation. Looking at the trends, we have to design packaging in a way that is biodegradable, recyclable and environment-friendly.”