Sadananda Gowda inaugurates Global Investors meet: India Pharma 2021 and India Medical Devices 2021

NEW DELHI: Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister D V Sadananda Gowda inaugurated a four day Global Investors meet: India Pharma 2021 & India Medical Devices 2021 organized by FICCI along with Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India, and Invest India.

Minister of Railways, Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution Piyush Goyal was virtually present on the occasion. Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Mansukh L Mandaviya, also graced the occasion. EY-FICCI report titled ‘Indian Pharmaceutical Industry 2021: future is now’ was also launched during the event.

Speaking on the occasion, Gowda commended India’s capabilities as a global and reliable supplier of drugs and medical devices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Citing the recent UNCTAD report, he also pointed out India’s positive FDI growth even with a decline in FDI of 42% globally.

He said, “As the pandemic exposed the global vulnerabilities of the supply chains in the pharmaceuticals sector, the Department of Pharmaceuticals launched the Production Linked Incentive Scheme for bulk drugs, with a financial outlay of Rs 6,940 crores across 53 APIs over 6 years. For Medical Devices, another PLI scheme was announced with an outlay of Rs 3,420. Such interventions & incentives have played an instrumental role in realizing Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, or India for the world.”

The Minister added, “We supplied numerous COVID-related medical devices such as ventilators, RT-PCR kits, PPE Kits, and masks at a global level and ramped up our production capacity rapidly from virtually nil to 0.5Mn. We supplied HCQ to over 100 countries and are now leading vaccine production for our neighbors. The medical devices industry in India has the potential to grow at 28% p.a. to reach $50 billion by 2025. Moreover, FDI growth has been close to 100% year on year, reflecting the incredible level of opportunity that is being tapped into.”

Gowda further said, “In this edition of India Pharma Medical Device 2021, the goal is to identify ways to realize the potential of the industry such that we can emerge an even stronger supplier of quality drugs and medical devices, through solving challenges and plan for continued growth.”

Highlighting the Ease-of-Doing business within the sector, He added, “Pharma Bureau established in the Department of Pharma has started actively engaging with industry, handholding the investors & taking up the pending issue of investors with various Government departments.”

Addressing the participants, Goyal said, “57 countries have already joined India’s leadership in demanding Intellectual Property Waiver for COVID-19 vaccine. Leaders everywhere are rising up to the challenge and joining PM Modi Ji’s call for affordable health for the entire world. Globally, India is one stop solution provider for the entire health ecosystem, and we are confident enough to deal with anything related to health. Regulatory & good manufacturing practices, systems and certifications, approvals, will always help us grow in scale and bring down the price.”

Mandaviya said, “Under the astute leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India fought a successful battle against COVID-19globally. With a population of more than 1.3 billion, India was the most vulnerable to the pandemic given its socio-economic background. However, with the introduction of effective interventions by the Government under the able leadership of Prime Minister Modi , such as the well-planned and timely lockdown& the development of indigenous vaccines, India has undoubtedly emerged as the victor in fighting COVID-19. With the Government’s strong grit and fighting spirit of the Indians, India has also emerged as one of the largest manufacturers of PPE kits, masks, ventilators, and testing kits. Where India used to import even testing kits from the outside world in the past decades, it is now self-reliant or “Aatmanirbhar” and is playing a major role in the global supply chain.”

Mandaviya further added, “as India continues to strengthen its status as a leading investment destination by continuously improving its Ease of Doing Business through the enactment of several policy measures especially during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure continuity, I am sure this platform will be instrumental in contributing to India’s growth story and to chart out the path of progress of both the industry & the country.”

S Aparna, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India said, “The multidisciplinary medical device industry along with the Department of Pharmaceuticals has strived towards the interest of the patient, sustainable growth of the sector, and the goal for affordable and universal healthcare. In close partnership with DPIIT under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry we are happy to acknowledge the PLI scheme for pharmaceuticals with an unpreceded outlay of 15,000 crores. We believe this will be a game changer in transforming our industry.” “We are at a juncture where enhanced cooperation between industry and policy makers will help us to achieve the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat in its truest sense of making in India and making for the world,” Ms Aparna added.

Key Highlights of the EY-FICCI report titled: ‘Indian Pharmaceutical Industry 2021: future is now

The opportunities that have emerged to accelerate the growth of Indian pharmaceutical and healthcare industry are – innovation led research and development, healthcare delivery (R&D), manufacturing and supply chain, and market access.

Accelerating research and innovation:
There is a need to move up India’s share of trade in value
To meet this objective, the industry must consider setting up an overarching regulatory body and a central body to streamline research infrastructure and financing from all government bodies, to explore new models for financing R&D to increase private investments and also make available funds for high risk and long-term projects, improve industry-academia collaboration and establish a strong innovation ecosystem.

Achieving equitable and sustainable healthcare:
The increased acceptability of digital technologies has the potential to improve healthcare delivery. This explores the progress towards achievement of universal healthcare access, establishing efficient processes like the use of Aadhar card to identify and simplify the delivery based on healthcare coverage category.
Enabling teleconsulting and focusing on preventive healthcare are some other areas for consideration with the role of the role of the industry, government, healthcare sector and insurers carved out.

Strengthening manufacturing and supply base in domestic and global markets:
The focus of manufacturing and supply chain initiatives would be to develop capabilities in APIs and enable the manufacturing of complex generics. Ease of doing business is a critical enabler to set up world class manufacturing facilities.

The attractiveness of the manufacturing sector too needs to be enhanced in order to attract the best talent in India and abroad.

Given the growth ambitions, it is vital to encourage and setup pharma machine manufacturing facilities in India to lower fixed costs, enable savings in forex and reduce time to set up additional facilities.

There is also a need to bolster the logistics infrastructure for connecting the key pharma hubs in the country in order to facilitate quick and cost efficient movement of goods including cold chain facilities

Improving access to medicines:
The market access to prescription drugs needs to improve in the country
Various global best practices in drug pricing and procurement models can be contextualized for developing geographies Digital marketing of pharma products too must be considered

Union Minister along with MoS also presented 6^th India Pharma and medical device award in following categories: