Distinguished industry leaders engage in a turnkey meeting to add fillip to India’s pre-eminent position in the pharma domain

•The exclusive, closed-door CEO Round Table belongs to the Stream of Leadership under the celebrated India Pharma Week umbrella

•In its second edition, the Round Table will cull the recommendations from elite thought leaders that will result in a White Paper Report to be presented to policy makers and the power corridors of the nation

Mumbai, November 29, 2017: The 2nd edition of the celebrated India Pharma Week, a UBM India initiative -- introduced last year to celebrate a decade of CPhI & P-MEC, UBM’s flagship engagement platform, and the world’s leading Pharmaceutical networking event -- witnessed one of its most significant events, the CEO Round Table.

The exclusive, closed-door Round Table was a congregation of India’s most influential CEOs, Presidents & Founders from leading pharmaceutical companies, and Policy Makers & Senior Representatives from Pharmaceutical Associations who engaged with one another on the vital issue of Make in India – Ensuring India’s Pharma Supremacy with a special focus on affordable healthcare in the urban and rural areas in India.

Speaking on the occasion of the CEO Round Table, Mr. Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, UBM India said, “Renowned as the pharmacy hub of the world, the Indian pharma economy has been lauded for its rapid growth, with a CAGR of 17.6%. As we congregated for this elite knowledge sharing session, we confronted the Indian pharma industry at a very crucial juncture in its growth trajectory.  While India ranks amongst the top four pharmaceutical markets in terms of volume of produced drugs, certain challenges continue to surround its pharma industry. India faces issues including a time-consuming approval process, dependence on China for cheaper API sources, sub-optimal infrastructure, lack of funding avenues, and a shortage of highly skilled talent, among others. “

“Meanwhile, the US - the largest exporter of Indian generics -- has started looking inwards at its own domestic market. Hence the subject of Ensuring India’s Pharma Supremacy- Make in India becomes critical. The reasons and solutions for this gap were discussed by the noted master strategists who drive business in the pharma sector. The CEO Round Table is an extremely proactive initiative with the White Paper Report that will be presented to relevant policy makers.” he further added.

The best-in-class industry professionals who were a part of the exclusive meeting included D G Shah, Secretary General, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance; Dinesh Dua, CEO & Director, Nector Lifesciences; S V Veeramani, Chairman & MD, Fourrts (India) Laboratories Pvt Ltd; Prashant Nagre, CEO, Fermenta Biotach; Ranga Iyer, Former MD, Wyeth; Rajiv Gulati, Former President, Ranbaxy; Suresh Subramanium, Senior VP & Head, Branded Formulations, South Asia; Ashok Bhattacharya, Executive Director/ Country Manager, Takeda Pharmaceuticals India Pvt Ltd; Prof. Pierre Pienaar, President, WPO; Dev Prakash Yadava, Managing Director , Shardachem; Dr. G.M. Warke, Founder & CMD HiMedia Laboratories;  A. Vaidheesh, MD, GSK; Ziva Abraham, CEO, Microrite Inc;  Srinivas Lanka, Vice Chairman Pharma and Bio Taskforce, Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board; Kewal Handa, Director, Salus Lifesciences;  B.G. Barve, Joint Managing Director, Bluecross Laboratories Pvt Ltd; S M Mudda, Director Global Strategy, Microlabs and Mr Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, UBM India.

A representative body of the group comprising Kewal Handa, Dr. Dinesh Dua, Sriram Shrinivasan, S.M. Mudda and Yogesh Mudras later interacted with the media to discuss the key tenets of its proposals.

The recommendations included, but were not limited to the following key points:

·         India should build on its own strengths to improve exports from the country

·         Union and State Governments should develop a proactive approach towards building better quality compliance in the sector. They should be a facilitator of funds and platforms, and leave the mechanism of delivery to the private sector

·         The approach towards quality compliance should be a behavioural priority with a bottom- up approach. A distinction should be made between adherence and compliance, with a focus on the former when it comes to ground implementation

·         With the technology disruption in the pharma sector, access to quality healthcare across geographies and at various socio-economic levels should be easier and is of critical importance. Technology helps save on factors such as time and travel, of vital importance in accessing quality and timely healthcare

·         SMEs in India are one of the drivers of the growth trajectory in the economy. The SME sector should be well built with the capacity to comply with the quality checks and delivery requirements to enhance the accessibility of medicines to consumers

·         Increasing collaboration with the academia in the form of Indian Pharma research institutes and university is vital. An intrinsic link between the industry, government and educational institutions is also highly recommended