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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