The Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar inaugurated an international exhibition and conference on Pharma industry, medical electronics and devices sector at Bengaluru today. India Pharma 2016 and India Medical Expo 2016 is the first such major composite event in the country for the pharmaceutical and Medical devices industry. The 3-day event is aimed at increasing overall growth of Pharma sector including exports, and focuses on increasing domestic production in the sector. The event also strives to encourage ‘Make in India’ for manufacturing drugs and pharma machines, and also provides a platform to global investment community to connect with stakeholders.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Ananth Kumar said the Pharmaceuticals in the country has the potential to become global leader soon. Invoking the Prime minister’s clarion call for ‘Make in India’ he said that the Government is supporting the domestic Pharmaceutical industry, and removing various bottlenecks. To compete with the other countries, production cost of drugs has to be brought down, and for this purpose Government of India is coming up with Pharma clusters/parks where common facilities and infrastructure will be provided. He said that the issues of making available credit to companies at affordable rates, and continuing the Income Tax exemptions for R&D activities will be taken up with the finance ministry. Shri Ananth Kumar said that for skill development and manpower availability, dozen NIPERs( National Institutes of Pharmaceutical education and research) are being set up, out of which 8 are already functional. Regarding the implementation of Katoch Committee report on bulk drugs, he said that his ministry has already accepted the recommendations, and inter-ministerial consultations are going on. He said that Medical devices sector is upcoming, and the first Medical Device park will be set up in Gujarat. The Minister said that the Government will have a sustained dialogue with the industry and stakeholders so that affordability (quality), availability (ease) and affordability of medicines could be ensured.
The Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, addressing the gathering said that the Government is taking several steps to make available affordable medicines to poor and rural people. He said that mobile vans will be put into service for distribution of medicines to far-off areas. He stressed on increased R&D activities and innovation in the sector. The Secretary, department of Pharmaceuticals Dr V.K. Subburaj said that the pharma sector is growing at a great pace, but it has mainly focused on Generic medicines. He called upon the industry to diversify its products and its production facilities in different states rather than being concentrated in four states. Dr Subburaj asked the industry to comply with international quality standards, and also work more on R&D. The inaugural session was also attended by the Industry minister, Karnataka, Shri R V Deshpande, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Karnataka Shri U T Khader, Minister for Medical Education, Karnataka Dr Sharan Prakash Patil, captains of the industry and senior officials from Government of India and Government of Karnataka.