Speaking on the sidelines of Life Science Conclave 2010 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), industry experts have opined that the Indian government should come up with policies to guide the domestic pharma industry, thereby helping the country to become a pharmaceutical giant in the near future. They are of the view that in order to help the industry, particularly the small and mid-sized players engaged in the sector, the government in conjunction with the life science industry needs to build a regulatory framework.

In this context, C Gopalkrishna Murthy, president of the Indian Pharmaceutical Association, while speaking to a Bizxchange correspondent, said, “The regulatory framework will help in checking the entry of cheap quality raw materials from countries like China, which is a major problem being faced by small-scale pharma manufacturers as it is impeding their growth. The government should levy anti-dumping duties on raw materials procured from these countries to protect and provide a facelift to the domestic pharma industry.”

Notably, foreign pharma companies are already eyeing Indian markets to deal with rising cost of drug discovery and development. Low cost of clinical trails in India, coupled with tax exemption being provided for a period of 10 years on drugs and raw materials for clinical trials are encouraging foreign firms to conduct these trials in India.

According to Bafna Mahaveer Chand, CMD of Bafna Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a small-sized manufacturer of pharmaceutical products in Chennai, “The government should implement patent law in a smooth and time-bound manner to ensure efficiency and transparency in the domestic pharma industry. It should also encourage capability building in R&D, which will immensely benefit small pharma manufacturers as they lack the required resources to undertake meaningful research.”

Meanwhile, the government has already started taking steps to boost the domestic pharma industry as it has been able to convince countries like Kenya, to amend its anti-counterfeit law, which had labelled generics manufactured by Indian pharma companies as illegal. Therefore, now Indian pharma SMEs have a chance to revive their business in this East African nation.

Arup Choudhury