The Indian pharmaceutical industry is still waiting for a solid support from the government in the form of laws and regulations to guide the industry.

Ruing the fact that so far no concrete proposals from the industry have been received by the government who might consider and put in the form of laws and regulations to guide pharmaceutical companies and medical researchers alike, Dr VM Katoch, Director General, ICMR and Secretary, Health Services, said he was dismayed at the fact that India had "great dreams but no pathway for reality."

Dr Katoch was speaking on the occasion of Life Science Conclave 2010, a two-day event organized by the Confederation of Indian industry (CII) annually, aiming at providing a platform to the various stakeholders of the Indian life sciences industry to come together and deliberate upon developing a model that will help propel India into realising its potential as a pharmaceutical giant.

He also stressed on developing some concrete plan based on the outcome of the conclave. That proposal will be viewed positively by the Government, Dr Katoch assured.

To deal with the rising costs of drug discovery and development, the big pharma companies have started looking at low cost destinations like India, China and Brazil. These geographies further serve as attractive pharmaceutical markets that are expected to grow at more than double the growth rate of the pharma market's global average.

In his brief address, Dr Anand C Burman, Chairman, Dabur Ltd, and Chairman, CII National Committee on Biotechnology, stressed on the need for the life science industry and the government to work in tandem to bring about a regulatory framework that was both "ethical and rational."

He hoped that the event would culminate in a white paper, clearly demarcating the roadmap that would shape the future regulatory regime.

The CII-YES BANK Knowledge Report: 'India Life Sciences: Vision 2015,' was released on the occasion, monitored that the evolution of industry structures and pro-actively participate at various levels to create innovative business models and provide advisory support to this core industry.

Satish Reddy, Chairman, CII National Committee on Drugs and Pharmaceutical, and Managing Director and CEO, Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, began with an optimistic note, enumerating the great strides the Indian life science industry has taken in the recent past.

Clinical trials, he added, wasn’t doing badly either, what with India already constituting half the size of the industry in the US and the EU.

With its world class facilities in manufacturing, India has the largest number of USFDA approved plants outside the US and has already become the favoured destination for development and manufacturing APIs and formulations for clinical trials.

"There are, of course, challenges," said Reddy. They were "talent crunch, not much Research and Development to write home about, reluctance to invest in R&D" among others.  For one, our percentage share in GDP is the lowest even among the BRIC countries. He ended his speech by expressing the hope that India will one day in the near future emerge as the global pharmaceutical hub.