The Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) jointly organised the 1st Pharmaceutical Innovation Exchange (PIE) Forum recently.

The forum provides a unique opportunity for academic research institutions and industry experts to exchange knowledgebase and innovations.

The initiative will contribute to shaping industry-oriented research and strengthen indigenous development, upscale or commercialise innovative pharmaceutical products and technologies.

More than 100 participants attended the forum representing pharma industry experts from 22 IPA member companies, directors and senior research scientists from CSIR institutes namely, IICT-Hyderabad, IIIM-Jammu, NCL-Pune, CDRI-Lucknow, IMTECH-Chandigarh, and NIIST-Thiruvananthapuram. 

“Building presence in innovation is now a critical priority for India to address the needs of our healthcare system, as well as maintain high relevance in the global pharma space. India has several strengths to leverage and to move forward in the journey to ‘Discover in India’ from ‘Make in India,'" Dr Shekhar Mande, Director General, CSIR.

“The Indian pharma industry has the potential to grow to around $120-130 billion over the next decade from the current value of around $41 billion. Innovation will be one of the key drivers of this growth. By bringing together industry and academia, the Pharmaceutical Innovation Exchange forum will help us unlock value and collaborate to bring innovative healthcare solutions to patients in need,” said Satish Reddy, President, IPA and Chairman, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories.

“Patient centricity is at the core of IPA’s ethos, and we are confident that our collaboration with CSIR would generate substantial healthcare benefit for India. Indian industry would play a pivotal role going forward in the innovation space”, Sudarshan Jain, Secretary-General, IPA.