Indian pharma industry will be among the first to develop and supply low cost vaccines for COVID-19: Gowda

DV Sadananda Gowda, Union Minister for Chemical and Fertilizers has lauded the contribution of Indian pharma industry during the testing time of COVID-19 expressing confidence that Indian pharma industry will be among the first ones to develop and supply low-cost vaccines for this pandemic.

Gowda was addressing a Webinar organised by Invest India Pharma Bureau and Department of pharmaceuticals on #EIF2020 Medical Devices and Pharmaceutical Sector Edition – unravelling the investment potential, Gol initiatives, infrastructure and emerging opportunities in the sector through video conferencing yesterday evening.

He further said that the Department of Pharmaceuticals has taken several measures to create enabling environment for the development of domestic capacity in pharma and medical device sector and has decided to support the development of three bulk drug parks and four medical devices parks across the country in coordination with State Governments and private sector. The objective is to make India self-reliant in the production of 53 critical APIs or Key Starting Materials (KSMs), and in production of medical devices, for which India is crucially dependent upon imports.

Gowda said that he is very much sure that these parks will be able to attract significant investment as well as the latest technology.  Within a period of two to three years, due to business-friendly policies of Union Government, pharma sector will become atmanirbhar, not only in meeting domestic requirements but also for fulfilling global demand of low cost – high-quality medicines and medical devices.

It is expected that these schemes of the Union Government for development of bulk drug and medical device parks will attract cumulative investment of Rs 78000 crores and can generate about 2.5 lakh employment, he said.