The Indian pharma community will work together to achieve the desired goals set for 2020, the 58th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress (IPC), which started here yesterday, has pledged.
The theme of the conference 'Pharma Vision 2020: Roles, Responsibilities, Resources' will be presented to the Government of India as a paper on the pharma industry's potential and requirements. Speaking at the inauguration M. Venkateswarlu, Drug Controller General, Government of India, and chairman, IPC Mumbai said from the 1970's, the pharma sector has helped India to achieve self-reliance in essential medicines.
In the coming years, India will be a major player in the global pharma industry and will show the world that it not only competes on cost advantage but also innovates. "Some Indian companies have ventured in new drug discovery research and we are hopeful about having the first ever Indian innovated drug in the market very soon", he said.
The 'Pharma Vision 2020' prepared on the basis of the deliberations and discussions at the conference will act as a blueprint and an action plan for the Indian pharma industry. Important players from India and overseas will make presentations on varied practices the Indian pharma industry must adopt to achieve a strong global position by the year 2020. Among the other features of the Charter of the Pharma Vision 2020 include industry's role to ensure essential drugs at affordable prices and provide employment opportunities. The challenge of Pharma R&D is to tap the generics market with its reverse engineering skills and shift towards discovery of new chemical entities.
Giving details of the 58th IPC, Subodh Priolkar, President, Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) said, "This year we have attracted around 250 exhibitors and more than 5000 delegates from the pharmaceutical industry across India. The discussions and deliberations at the conference by Indian and international speakers will help draft the Pharma Vision 2020."
India is on a self-reliance mode in the drug development, but the country is yet to make a mark in dispensing medicines and has still not realized the full potential of this service, said Dr Kamal Midha, president of Federation of International Pharmacy. Speaking at the inaugural session of the 58th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress held at Mumbai, Dr Midha said that there is a need to improve prescribing drugs and advising on the use of medicines by the Indian pharmacists.
"There is a need for India to set priorities in upgrading pharmacy education and ensure continuous education programmes to achieve GPP going hand-in-hand with this is the need for compulsory accreditation retail outlets which is yet to take off in India. "The advancements in pharma research and development achievements will be sub-optimal without education and accreditation," he said.
Delivering his presidential address, Dr B. Suresh, president, Indian Pharmaceutical Congress Association (IPCA) and president, Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), noted that Indian pharma will not be able to market the knowledge of its products because of poor presentation in pharmaceutical writing skills. "The key elements of good pharmaceutical writing which are understanding the basis and rules of editing medical documents, knowing how academic articles are constructed, mastering the rules of scientific evidences, understanding and interpreting biostatistics and commanding a thorough knowledge of medical nomenclature shall be promoted as a part for the pharmacist training," he said.