Thursday, December 6, 2012

India should set a target of producing 20pc of world’s cost effective pharma products


Chennai:
India has got a core-competence of producing cost effective pharma products and the country should set a target of producing 20 per cent of world generics production, according to former president of India Abdul Kalam.
Speaking after the inauguration of 64th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress here at SRM University Auditorium here on Thursday, Kalam said that the global production of pharmaceuticals, branded and generics put together is of more than $ 550 billion and Indian pharma industry, which has a turnover of $ 30 billion of generics and branded products, should aim to be a leader in drug production.

Stating that by 2020, the demand for pharmacists will be around 1.7 million in our country, he called for the need for partnership between pharma industries and pharma institutions in drug development and clinic research.
He also stressed the importance to develop a strategy to bring about continuous upgradation in pharmacy education to meet the changing needs of the profession.
He said Indian pharma industrialists have to aggressively shift paradigms and look beyond process development capabilities towards new drug research with adequate attention to quality, costs, and time dimensions. “We need Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) capabilities for drug discovery research, new drug delivery systems, state-of-the-art packaging systems, automation, flexibility in manufacturing, and reliability of products,” he said.
Kalam also highlighted how Open Source Software movement, a Coucil of scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) led team India consortium with global partnerships, has brought a change in the research domain in India based on the new and innovative approach in soliciting the contribution from the young minds across the world to provide affordable healthcare to the developing world.

He said market forces discourage research- based pharmaceutical companies from developing drugs for infectious diseases like Tuberculosis (TB), Malaria, and Leishmaniasis (Kala Azar), that predominantly affect the developing world. 
“In the wake of the failure of market forces we need to explore new models of drug discovery. This is where OSDD offers a promising new model,” he added.

He also said the pharmacy education has an important role to play in equipping the students with the knowledge and ability to detect the entry of unauthorized drugs into circulation. He said the Central and State governments have to ensure that the Drugs and Cosmetics Act is properly enforced to check this nefarious practice. The pharmaceutical curriculum must include subjects which will enable detection of spurious pharmaceutical products by all pharmacists, he added.

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