Centre to soon come up with an exclusive R&D policy for pharma sector: Official

Vaghela said the government is planning to set up three National Centres of Excellences (CoE) for drugs, medical devices in the country while the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) here will house one CoE fordrug discovery. "We should be ready that our scientists also become millionaires.

Observing that scientists who achieve breakthrough innovations should also be rewarded, Secretary of Department of Pharmaceuticals, PD Vaghela on Wednesday said the Centre will soon come up with an exclusive policy for Research and Development in the sector. Vaghela said the government is planning to set up three National Centres of Excellence (CoE) for drugs, medical devices in the country while the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) here will house one CoE for drug discovery.

"We should be ready that our scientists also become millionaires. If they (scientists) can invent good products and do some research, why not? That is happening in Europe and the US. Why not in India? Even if a scientist in a government institute invent something good and it is converted into a commercial product, we should reward him," Vaghela said. He was speaking at the 77th Foundation day of CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology here through video conference.

"We are working (on the R&D policy). Our R&D policy is more on this... so our department has taken the initiative through industry-academia interaction for framing this policy and we are likely to finalize it shortly," the official said. According to Vaghela, the Indian pharmaceutical Industry is the third-largest in the world by volume and 14th in terms of value even as it contributes 3.5 percent of the total medicines exported globally.

The total size of pharma and related industry including medical devices in the country was at USD 51 billion in 2019- 20, of which 75 percent is contributed by pharmaceutical products alone, he said. Noting that India faces three challenges in the pharma and medical devices sectors, the official said 86 percent of the total requirement of medical devices including surgical, cardiac stents and electronic gadgets are currently being imported due to cost advantage.

The other two challenges are import dependence for drug intermediates and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) while the third was R&D in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector and skilling. He said the central government was proposing to set up three bulk drug parks, for which it provides Rs 1,000 crore to each.

The selection of states, where these parks would come up, would be based on the infrastructure they provide.