The Indian pharma industry should carry forward basic research to its logical conclusion and formulate its own brand of success in drug discovery, said minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers, Satya Brate Mookherjee today.
The government will encourage the industry in such ventures, including providing appropriate fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for R&D in the pharma sector, he said at the meeting of the consultative committee of the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers.
The agenda for the meeting was drugs and pharmaceuticals - Vision 2020. Members of Parliament attending the meeting said stress on availability of cheap and effective medicines to a greater section of the population would make it a pro-people vision paper.
He said Indian pharma products should be of a quality that can be benchmarked against international regulatory standards in manufacturing.
It would also be necessary to upgrade the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation by modernizing, restructuring the existing system.
He also said that investment in research and development should be upscaled to 10 per cent of sales turnover.
This should be further leveraged through networking with government national labs and academia.
