Indian biopharma leaders call for more government help
Sector needs more attention to help it reach its full potential
India’s biopharma sector deserves better attention from the government to help realise its full potential, according to the recent US-India Bio-Pharma and Healthcare Summit, organised by the USA-India Chamber of Commerce (USAIC) in Massachusetts, US.
Biopharma industry leaders and experts from India have urged the government to introduce 'predictable, transparent and pragmatic regulatory policies' capable of upgrading the Indian biopharma and healthcare innovation landscape.
As a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers suggested, a regulatory environment that is more 'enabling than restrictive' is required for innovation. But the exorbitant cost of drug development and also the highly competitive nature of the biopharma industry leave little room for aggressive innovation.
Most Indian pharma companies are risk averse and are not investing big to develop innovative products. The US research-based biopharmaceutical industry invests 15-17% of sales in research and development. India, however, fails to capitalise on the recent revolutionary advances in microbiology, informatics and genomics, according to experts at the meeting.
Speakers also highlighted that it was time the Indian government encouraged commercialisation of new drug discoveries by enabling the transfer of intellectual property rights to private parties responsible for the innovation.
The market for a new antibiotic is very small and capital is not flowing towards developing new antibiotics. Innovator firms have shifted R&D towards complex diseases with few existing treatment options, such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, obesity and rheumatoid arthritis.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson and managing director of Biocon, stated at the USAIC Summit: 'Oncology is a huge challenge for India. But this is one area where India can play a big role and help in reducing the cost of treatment and medicine.'