Indian Pharma Industry Needs To Invest More In R&D: DCGI

New Delhi, Nov 24 (KNN) The Indian pharmaceutical industry needs to bring in a shift in their mindset and also bring in more money into research and development, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) Rajeev Raghuvansh on Thursday said.

Indian drugmakers spend around 6-8 per cent of their total revenues on R&D in India when compared with developed markets like the US which spent 19.1 per cent of its sales on research. 

Delivering a keynote at an Organisation Of Pharmaceutical Producers Of India event in New Delh, he said, “The industry has to bring in more money into research and development and there is no debate about that. I hope pharma bodies like OPPI and IPA are already thinking about this and investments are increasing in R&D.”

Raghuvansh said that India has all the ingredients of a mature pharmaceutical market from infrastructure to fresh talent and that it's the right time for the industry to move from volume-led growth to a value-led one. India is ranked as the third largest pharmaceutical market in terms of volumes and 14th by value simply translating that the country produces more copycat drugs than the innovator medications. 

“Whatever India has achieved is due to the generic drugs revolution which began in the early 1990s with Ranbaxy filing the first ANDA of Cefaclor and today we are world leaders in producing generics. But in the last thirty years, has the success of being leaders in the generic model stopped us from not moving up the value chain parallelly? Now that is required today more than any time in the past and I believe we are losing time,” the DCGI stated. 

He said that it would be difficult for India to maintain this leadership position if India does not shift the play from volume to value. 

“The first and foremost need in India is the shift of the mindset. Owing to the successful generic model most of us are still stuck there. I do not know whether it is training or the mindset that people wait for some reference from the US or Europe to start working or developing a product and that is the biggest problem we need to come out from,” Raghuvanshi concurred. 

Raghuvanshi highlighted that as a philosophy, the Indian government has recognised that there is a need to shift from volume to value which is a very big realisation and policies are framed around pushing this shift.

For instance, he said the recent R&D policy by the Department of Pharmaceuticals was created to promote innovation and we have many Product Linked Incentive schemes(PLIs), and medical device parks working for the medical devices sector as well. 

(KNN Bureau)