Government support is needed on various tax benefits for innovation and research in the pharma manufacturing space, says Daara B Patel, Secretary General, Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA), during an interaction with the Editorial Director of The New Indian Express Prabhu Chawla and noted journalist Kaveree Bamzai in TNIE Expressions on Thursday.
On the question of how far India is from becoming a global manufacturing hub, Patel said, It has taken more than 40 years to come to the position we are in today, so it will certainly take us more time, but we are going in the right direction. He said, “We are the third largest manufacturer of formulations because of what we used to do till 2005 owing to the facilities that were available.”
He emphasised on the need “to shift from cost arbitrage to intellectual arbitrage”, explaining, “We need to spend more time on research and development. We need to have more thorough interactions among the industry academia and we need government support on various taxes on R&D.”
Patel informed that earlier, there was a 200% special tax benefit on R&D spend, which was reduced to 150%, and which is now only 100%. “If we have to do more R&D and come up in the value chain with more patented products, then we need the support from the government.”
He called India the pharmacy for the world, noting that we supply to over 200 countries in the world. Patel said the various issues the pharma industry is grappling with include product prices, the industry not being the preferred choice of employment, OTC policy for guidelines on products that can be sold over the counter and harmonisation.
Harmonisation, he added, is very crucial to get approvals from countries across the globe. “Even our companies which have USFDA approval are not put on fast-track by other countries,” he said, adding, “we also need readymade people in pharma, for which, the curriculum has to be updated. “We are working with government bodies, and in a year or two, you should see solid support coming from the government of India to fuel our R&D,” Patel said in the conversation.