CII recently organised a two-day Life Science Conclave in Delhi that saw participation from industry stalwarts, academia and other stakeholders in the lifesciences industry. The opening session moderated by Dr Rajesh Jain, Joint Managing Director, Panacea Biotec, saw an eminent panel comprising Nata Menabde, WHO Representative to India; Arun Sawhney, CEO, Ranbaxy, YK Gupta, Head, Department of Pharmacology, AIIMS; Steven Smith, Health Attache, US Embassy and Nitya Anand, Chairman, Ranbaxy Research Foundation and former director Central Drug Research Institute. In his inaugural address, Anand emphasised on the need to focus on infectious diseases, while advocating affordability of drugs for tuberculosis (TB) and a better distribution to enable greater reach. He also stressed on the need to promote repositioning of generic drugs and setting up a council on the lines of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), UK to research and find newer uses of existing drugs, citing Aspirin as an example.
Gupta pointed out that universities worldwide have been the hub of innovation and the industry should take greater advantage of academic institutions and government labs. He has been instrumental in getting the Medical Council of India (MCI) to introduce pharmacovigilance as an essential part of MBBS curriculum.
Jain summed up the discussion by saying that India needs to focus on innovation to ensure healthcare outcomes are brought to people who need them. Public private partnerships can play a huge role in this regard, he added.
The session on central and state government initiatives driving policy for the industry saw an interesting mix of speakers from Department of Science and Technology(DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), National Skill Development Corporation and representatives from different states sharing statistics and information on new projects and developments.
Elucidating that more than 95 per cent of all skill building happens in Government institutions, Basab Banerjee from National Skill Development Corporation, said that there is a pressing need to address the quality paradigm of the workforce by setting up standards of certification and assessment. Representatives from TICEL Biopark, Chennai announced that it is slated to be the biggest biopark in Asia by April 2013.
The impact of a strong IPR on biopharma innovation was also touched upon. Talking about the same, Praful Naik, Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Director, Bilcare said that statistics don’t point out to a strong innovation culture in India. He was referring to the number of patents filed in India vis-a-vis those globally. Emphasising that innovations need to be commericialised while also ensuring that we have a strong regulation, he said, “We need a shift from innovative to an innovation pathway.” Pricing of drugs has been a topic that touches many chords.
Sundeep Kumar, Head Corporate and Public Affairs, Novartis, made an interesting presentation validating the fact that price control of drugs only helps to subsidise the rich while compromising the ability of a company to invest in R&D and its inability to launch patient programmes. Giving people the power to purchase medicines, instead of free or cheap medicines was strongly advocated.
Partnerships are increasingly becoming the norm in pharma industry, but its the value companies bring to it that matters echoed Dr Rashmi Barbhaiya, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Advinus Therapeutics. The company joined hands with Takeda Pharmaceuticals in drug discovery collaboration in October this year. Risk sharing, clarity of purpose and investment in capability building were cited as some of the drivers that make partnerships work in the pharma space by Rahul Guha, Principal, Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
The second day of the conclave saw discussions on viable business models to counter drying drug pipelines and future course of action, building hubs of innovation centered around universities and academia and strategies to augment the growth of pharma ecosystem.
EP News Bureau – Mumbai
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