ISB Pharma Summit focuses on access, growth and economics

The Healthcare Club at the Indian School of Business (ISB), hosted the ISB Pharma Summit today at the ISB campus.

In its third year, the Summit this time focused on the coming of ‘AGE’ of the Pharma industry in India. Eminent industry personalities attending this conclave, addressed three key areas of Access, Growth and Economics of the Indian Pharmaceutical industry.

Dean M Rammohan Rao said the ISB was exploring the possibility of offering a specialisation in healthcare in the coming future.

The keynote address was delivered by Drugs Controller General of India Dr M Venkateswarlu, “Pharma is the most controlled commodity and drugs are not a favourable purchase by the customer and hence is an indirect sale, as a customer has no choice about the product he is buying,” he said.

Venkateswarlu pointed out that in this sunrise industry, which is growing phenomenally, Access is not the main concern as much as is affordability. “At the time of Independence, 95% of the country’s Pharma needs were imported.

Today we have moved from a 10 crore turnover to a 35,000 crore, and a three fold growth is forecasted by 2020,” he said.

He further urged the industry to foster Public-Private Partnerships and increase mobility of services. “A noble idea could be of a Pharma company adopting villages,” he suggested.

“He also added that we need to increase our benchmark for ethics to meet global standards, and need to review it at regular intervals.

“He also perceived huge potential in the market of traditional Indian medicine if one can “rationalize, generate data and bring in documented sciences.”

Pharma is no more a small scale industry, according to the Drugs

Controller General, and it’s time to encourage medium and large scale production. He also pointed out the immense scope of clinical trials, adding, “We need to move from reverse engineering and discover drugs for the diseases of developing countries.”

The day’s proceedings was divided into three sessions, each specifically for “Access”, “Growth” and “Economics”

The first session saw speakers discuss the current and future emerging trends in this industry to accelerate growth. Industry experts discussed how Indian companies are thinking of innovative ways to expand their reach and market in India.

CEO, Pharmaceuticals Division, Novartis India Ltd, Anil Matai, presented to the audience an overview and current scenario of the Indian Pharma sector.