Bio pharma sector invited for talks by Planning Commission

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Karnataka Biotechnology Vision Group Chairperson & Association of Biotehnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) Executive Council Member Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said the ABLE team and other sectoral players will hold discussions to include the sector in the next five year plan.

She said the meeting, scheduled during end of the month, has been called to take affirmative action on ABLE’s ‘A Bio Pharma Strategy for India Vision 2020’ proposals submitted to the Centre and explore how best these could be incorporated into the five year plan process.

According to Mazumdar-Shaw, the Centre needs to create enabling ecosystem to ensure India becomes leading producer of affordable biopharmaceutical drugs in the next decade as present growth rates of over 30 per cent was just scratch on the surface. 

Stating that India should aim to capture 10 per cent of global market for biosimilars by 2020 to become one of top five producers in the world, ABLE President Vijay Chandru said, the Centre needs to invest atleast US$1 billion over the next five years. The strategic way forward, he observes, is through innovation and ability of Indian companies to create Intellectual Property.

The biopharmaceutical market, worth about US$137 billion today, according to industry estimate is expected to touch US$319 billion by 2020 of which Indian biopharmaceuticals market share is a miniscule 1.4 per cent of it (at around US$2 billion) even though it is logging over 30 per cent growth rate.

If we must catch up competitors such as Australia, China, Israel, etc, India needs to become manufacturing hub to encourage multinationals set up facilities by making substantial investment into building manufacturing capacities, provide fiscal incentives and construction of biotechnology clusters, they said.