Telangana pharma can take on world

Only if the State Government can incentivise capital markets to promote innovation, introduce policies to incubate high-potential start-ups, and promote academia-industry collaboration can the State pharma industry compete with the world. Reducing the Indian manufacturing industries' dependence on imports will be another crucial step in this direction. Production-linked incentives will boost the pharma industry. This will help new start-ups to stand on their own feet, says Dr Ramachandra Reddy Yeluri, MD Ven Life Sciences Private Ltd in an exclusive interview to Patan Afzal Babu.

The Telangana Government has claimed that it has taken many initiatives to promote the pharma industry in Hyderabad. What kind of growth do you see in the next five years?

As you all are aware that Hyderabad is Hub for Finished dosage forms and bulk drugs, Indian pharmaceutical sector is expected to grow to US$ 100 billion, while the medical device market is expected to grow US$ 25 billion by 2025. Pharmaceuticals export from India stood at US$ 16.3 billion in FY20. Pharmaceutical export includes bulk drugs, intermediates, drug formulations, biologicals, Ayush and herbal products and surgicals. As of November 2020, India exported pharmaceuticals worth US$ 15.86 billion in FY21. Pharmaceutical exports from India stood at US$ 16.28 billion in FY20 and US$ 2.07 billion in October 2020.

India's biotechnology industry comprises bio-pharmaceuticals, bio-services, bio-agriculture, bio-industry, and bioinformatics. The Indian biotechnology industry was valued at US$ 64 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach US$ 150 billion by 2025.

What are the challenges faced by the pharma industry and how proactive is the State Government in addressing them?

We always appreciate the vision of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao for bringing world class Pharma City in Mucherla with all facilities under one roof. With their support many international companies are investing in Hyderabad. We request them to provide some incentives on discovery research to invent new medicines.

Big pharma has to come up with some new cures for presently incurable diseases. Among the list of those, they need to make real progress to continue to be Alzheimer's disease and various cancers. This requires continuous massive investment in research and development but also greater success in discovering new innovative treatments that work and get regulatory approvals.

The Government needs to support all bulk drug and finished dosage companies to reduce the import of bulk drugs, intermediates from China. If we do so, we can provide many jobs and it will provide sustainable business.

Is the pharma industry in Telangana in a position to compete with world leaders and what incentives does the industry expect from the Government. Are we in a position to incubate high-potential start-ups?

The government needs to incentivise capital markets to promote innovation, introduce policies to incubate high-potential start-ups, and promote academia-industry collaboration. Reducing the Indian manufacturing industry's dependence on imports will be another crucial step in this regard.

Production-linked incentives will boost the pharma industry. This will help new start-ups to stand on their own feet. We have huge manufacturing capabilities. Hence, Hyderabad companies can collaborate with US companies for innovation to speed up the medicines to introduce into the market.

Which are the areas the pharma sector needs to tap to speed up the pharma production in Telangana?

At present a major component of Indian exports are low value generic drugs while a large proportion of the demand for patented drugs is met through imports. This is because the Indian Pharmaceutical sector lacks in high-value production along with world class pharma R&D. In order to incentivize the global and domestic players to enhance investment and production in these product categories, a well-designed and suitably targeted intervention is required to incentivise specific high value goods such as biopharmaceuticals, complex generic drugs, patented drugs or drugs nearing patent expiry, cell based or gene therapy drugs.

Further, looking at the increasing imperative of drug security, continued support to domestic production capability in APIs/KSMs would ensure higher resilience of the Indian pharmaceutical industry to external shocks. These initiatives have the potential to contribute significantly to achieving higher objective of affordable healthcare in the country and globally on a sustained basis.

Vaccines and medicine to cure corona virus are on high demand in the world market. What is the contribution of pharmaceutical companies from Hyderabad in providing pharma products for corona treatment?

Bharat Biotech is producing a large number of Covaxin for corona. Biological E is the world largest producer of all types of vaccines and Indian Immunologic facilities can also be used for production of vaccines for corona virus.

Are pharmaceutical companies from Telangana ready to take up production of equipment like respiratory intensive care units on a large scale?

The Telangana Government recently started medical devices park to boost the production of medical equipment like respirators and intensive care units. By 2022, all companies will supply these devices as per market demand.

What are the challenges facing the pharma industry to produce adequate corona vaccines to meet the demand. As of now there is a mismatch in demand and supply?

We can transfer the vaccine manufacturing technology to other small companies in India to boost the production supply or we can supply the bulk material to other companies for vial fill finish operations. In this manner we can supply the product to meet the demand.