The Hindu Business Line : India should produce 40% of world’s generic drugs, says Kalam

Vadodara, March 31 The former President of India, Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on Monday emphasised the need for India to contribute 40 per cent of the world’s generic drug production and focus on eradication of diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.

Addressing a gathering here to celebrate the centenary function of Alembic Ltd, he said the global production of pharmaceuticals, branded and generics put together is nearly $550 billion. The domestic pharma industry, at present, has a turnover of $12.5 billion of generics for domestic and export markets against the production of $78 billion worth of generics in the world.

The Pharma Council has evolved the Pharma Vision 2020.

“I have suggested that the pharma community should identify all missions which will make India the leader in drug production. We should set a target of producing 40 per cent of world generics production. Indian pharmaceutical companies have got the core competence for producing cost- effective and quality pharma products.”

Narrating his experience with the pharmaceutical laboratories in India, Mr Kalam said our pharma industry is well on its way to revolutionise through the development of a number of drugs needed by India and other countries. He also enumerated the steps being taken by various Indian laboratories for finding cure for different diseases, including tuberculosis.

Herbal market

Mr Kalam regretted that India missed the opportunity in partnering the human genome project, and thereby, lost the utility of right type of data.

About the traditional medicinal systems, he said India ranks among the top few nations having a rich bio-diversity. Particularly, in the herbal area there are potential applications for developing multiple products for nutrition, prevention and cure of diseases.

Of the global herbal product market of $61 billion, China has a share of around $6 billion, whereas India’s share is not even $1 billion. There are opportunities for growth in this area.

Knowledge-based value addition for these natural resources would mean exporting value-added products rather than merely the raw materials.

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