India is trailing other countries in the new pharma innovation pharmaceutical research areas, and the industry is openly addressing this concern, in turn seeking support from the government. A similar discussion took place at BioAsia 2019 as well, indicating that not much has changed in a year.

During an interactive session between the industry experts at BioAsia 2020, the need of an integrated health ministry in India was talked about, in order to simplify regulations and promote innovations in our country.

A Vaidheesh, VP, South Asia & MD, GSK said, “Simplified regulatory mechanisms are indeed required to promote innovations in India, but more than that an integrated system within the government is most needed. Today, we see the players of the healthcare space working for their own benefits. Everyone has become a businessman. It is important to keep a framework and system in place, which is missing. It is very difficult to optimize all the stakeholders.”

Supporting this thought and bringing further suggestions, Dr Satyanarayana Chava, Founder & CEO, Laurus Labs said, “We keep hearing a lot about the convergence of technology in India. I think it is high time we converged the policies as well and brought about the required changes in our system.”

Suresh Pattathil, CEO, Ferring Pharma, India was also in sync with these observations. “Innovations in India can also be promoted by collaborating with universities globally where the best research is taking place. This will work wonders for the the pharma industry”, he added.

Bringing the attention to the growing number of startups in India, Dr Krishna Ella, CMD, Bharat Biotech said, “There are so many innovative ideas coming out of the pockets of startups in India. The startups can be the gamechangers in this space. But of course, without proper regulatory system, it will remain a challenging process. Imagine, if the government approves an innovation within 30 days, everyone will be so motivated.”