On day two of the 7th International conference on Pharma and medical device sector, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, Smt. S. Aparna and Union Health secretary, Shri Rajesh Bhushan chaired a panel discussion with the Pharmaceuticals industry CEOs in the presence of Shri. Anurag Jain, Secretary, DPIIT on the theme 'Indian Pharma vision 2047'

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, Smt. S Aparna highlighted that India has the triple advantage of cost, quality and scale in the pharma sector and this needs to be ramped up. She further added that India has built up a reputation for being able to deliver good quality generic medicines at high production scale and at affordable prices. It is a matter of great pride that we are able to fulfill 50 per cent of the demand in many of the low-income economies as well as in the advanced market by supplying good quality generic medicines on a regular basis. As we march ahead and aspire to be a global pharma leader by 2047, differentiation based on innovation will be the key in achieving this pious objective, she added.

She further stated that in order to keep pace with the changing trends in the pharma and health sector, skills like agility, ability to overcome redundancy and creativity at every level would be paramount. “There are three strands which we should focus on: regulatory framework, research framework along with the resources including fiscal and talent,” she added.

Highlighting the importance of stakeholder collaboration she exhorted “Collaboration between large companies and start-ups, industry and academia collaboration by making public research more accessible and collaboration across sectors including the drug, devices sector along with the digital sector will be the main pillar of growth in the years to come”. Enumerating on the vision Pharma 2047, she highlighted the following objectives, vision and roadmap of the Ministry:

• Global leader in manufacturing of affordable, innovative & quality pharmaceuticals & medical devices for the goal of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’
• ‘Vishwaguru’in innovation & Research for delivering health care products to future generations in a sustainable manner, introducing natural products
• Ensure accessibility & affordability of patient-centric products for better healthcare outcomes for universal health coverage, by building upon partnerships across industry, science and governments
• Contribute to Health System to attain union of equity, efficacy, and efficiency towards developing holistic products profile, with focus on NCDs, AMR, and rare & neglected diseases
• Create equilibrium between social, economic, & governance aspects through facilitative, balanced & progressive policy and regulatory framework
• Reduce India’s carbon footprint in Pharma-MedTech to align with Hon’ble PMs vision of “Panchamrita”
• Identifying critical suppliers, de-risking & decarbonising the supply chain, and  promoting local sourcing
• Medical Devices to be an integral part of global supply chains for raw material, components, spare parts, assemblies/subassemblies etc
• Digitization and technology upgradation in delivery of services & products under Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana.

Speaking on the Occasion, Shri. Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said, “The paradigm of health has shifted from health to wellness to well-being in the last eight years. Health is not limited to what happens in a hospital or between a patient & pharmacy; health is much more than that.” It is important to realize how our country will look demographically by 2047. We will witness the bulging of the population pyramid which would mean that our youth population will be dominant and elder people will enjoy a good quality of life. However issues relating to geriatic health and medicines , mental health and other NCDs will become important. Hence, we would need  to ensure focused research on equity and access to drugs and diagnostics in the years to come, he added.

Highlighting the importance of the four pillars of Ayushman Bharat program, the Union Health Secretary said that the government is planning to operationalize around 1.5 lakh Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness centers in the country by December, 2022 out of which 1.17 lakhs have already been operationalised. Under Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY, 10 crore families are provided with health security and cashless treatment of 5 lakhs yearly.  In addition to this, the Government is working relentlessly to provide digital health service delivery through Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, he added. He further stated that the government is planning to spend Rs 65,000 crores in the next 5 years till 2025-26 to create health infrastructure at district levels.

Addressing the event, Shri Anurag Jain, Secretary, DPIIT said that apart from Make in India, we should also focus on discover in India, innovate in India and then Make in India. This is especially critical for the pharma sector. He further added that Intellectual Property is an extremely important area for the Pharma sector and we as a part of Government are committed to play a facilitative role for the sector. Considering the importance of the Pharma sector for India’s economic growth, it was also accorded the Sunrise sector status in the budget, he added

CEOs of various pharma companies, Senior Officials of the Ministry, FICCI etc were also present at the panel discussion.

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MV/AL