Access to affordable medical care and National Health Protection Scheme, priority of Government: D V Sadananda Gowda

Feb 18, 2019

 

• Steps afoot to make pharmaceuticals a Rs 3 lakh crore market
• Opportunity for Industry through Ayushman Bharat Programme
• Technologies like AI and advanced analytics being increasingly adopted by pharmaceutical industry: FICCI-KPMG Knowledge Paper

 

BANGALORE, 18 February 2019: Mr D V Sadananda Gowda, Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizer, Statistical and Programme Implementation, Government of India, said here today that the Government's focus was on improving access to affordable medical care and contribute to the National Health Protection Scheme, even as India continues to maintain its leadership position in manufacturing and supply of high quality generic medicines.

 

Mr Gowda was speaking at the 4th International Conference on Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices organized by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India jointly with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).

 

Mr Mansukh L. Mandaviya, Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers, Road Transport and Highways, Shipping, Government of India, while stressing on the development of infrastructure and affordable healthcare through initiatives like Ayushman Bharat, said that the Government was taking measures to make the Indian pharmaceutical sector a Rs. 3 lakh crore market.

 

Mr K J George, Minister for Large & Medium Scale Industries, Government of Karnataka,said that the state government plans to set up a special pharmaceuticals SEZ in Hassan and Pharma Parks in Bengaluru and Mangalore, which forms  a part of the Government of India���������s aim of investing over USD 50 billion by 2025.

 

Dr Henk Bekedam, WHO Representative to India,  stated that considering the increased involvement of the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises in the medical devices manufacturing sector, WHO will provide technical support to the sector to upgrade manufacturing standards.

 

Mr S Sridhar, Chairman, FICCI Pharma Committee said that industry believed in universal healthcare at affordable price for all Indian citizens, adding that this is a long term plan and requires a joint effort of the Government, industry and other stakeholders to collectively own this vision.

 

Mr Badhri Iyengar, Chairman, FICCI Medical Device Forum, said that it was important to look at having a unified healthcare regulator which could act as a bridge between the industry and the Government to create one window for facilitating business.

 

Drug regulators from over 30 countries including Russia, Kenya, the UK, Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia & Uzbekistan participated in the event. The event also saw participation of drug regulators from 15 states across India.

 

A FICCI-KPMG Knowledge Paper "Evolution to revolution: By use of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics in pharma" was also released at the event.

  

Highlights of FICCI-KPMG Knowledge Paper "Evolution to revolution: By use of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics in pharma"       Catalyzed by an exciting range of new, disruptive technologies, the pharmaceutical industry needs to reimagine its future. And the need to reimagine is being driven by shifts which are disturbing the industry's status quo - pressure to reduce costs and demonstrate greater value, swing from treatment to prevention, and personalized treatments. These shifts are challenging the overall business model of the pharmaceutical companies      Emerging technologies, AI and advanced analytics are being increasingly adopted by the pharmaceutical industry in many diverse and interesting ways    The value of technologies come from their ability to process large amount of complex, both structured and unstructured data, at a rapid pace to generate actionable insights and thereby reduce costs, improve time to market and gain competitive strength in the market place      While lot of interesting applications are in areas related to drug discovery, applications in other areas such as drug dosage and safety, manufacturing and supply chain and commercialization is being further explored      As far as technologies are concerned, pharmaceutical companies are choosing their fields of play and also who they play with, with a growing emphasis on collaboration and partnership. Accordingly, the industry is witnessing many such partnerships and quite often with technology start-ups