U'khand Governor calls for more research in pharmaceuticals

Uttarakhand Governor Krishna Kant Paul today called upon the Indian pharmaceutical industry to understand the need for more research so that cheaper drugs could be made available to people, especially the poor and the needy.
Inaugurating a Conference on Quality Management in Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing, organised here jointly by ASSOCHAM and the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India, the Governor said there were hardly any drugs which could be called as wholly Indian.
"This is due to lack of research. Only research and indigenous efforts will enable us to lower the prices of drugs which are expensive and make them available to people in general," he said.

The Governor stressed the need for the development of indigenous medicines based on ayurveda.
He said the pharmaceuticals industry can try to identify the active ingredients of ayurvedic medicines and then try to chemically synthesise the same.
He said standard practices as laid down for the industry must be implemented stringently so that there is no problem to acceptability by various regulatory authorities abroad.

He said Pharma companies should not push doctors to use and promote particular brands. "There should be a strong regulatory mechanism for sale of medicines through e-retail across the country so that spurious drugs can be kept out," he said.

Highlighting the positives of the Indian Pharmaceuticals industry, he said India ranked fourth in pharmaceutical production in the world.
"India is one of the leaders in pharmaceutical exports. The country exports drugs to almost all the countries. The domestic Pharma market was valued at 15.4 Billion US dollars in 2014 and is expected to double by 2020.
"India is likely to be among the top three pharmaceutical markets by incremental growth and sixth largest market globally in size," he said.
He said the benefits of maintaining high quality standards in Pharma manufacturing are multi-fold.
The quality of pharmaceutical products will greatly affect the revenues of the manufacturing company. The better the quality of a product the higher will be its sale.

Much more important, however, is that better quality standards in pharmaceutical manufacturing will safeguard the patients' wellbeing.