The pharma industry in Andhra Pradesh feels let down by the Union budget presented by Finance Minister is nothing except few changes with regard to the biotech, research and medical equipments.

"From a pharmaceutical industry perspective, the Budget has again turned out to be a non-event. There is nothing in terms of bold moves that will change the trajectory of growth of the industry or decisively impact public health", Dr Reddy's Laboratories MD Satish Reddy said.

"As far as the drug manufacturing is concerned, the budget is not an industry friendly. Except the 2 per cent reduction in customs duty, nothing much has been done in this regard which can be termed as industry friendly", M Narayan Reddy, president, Bulk Drug Manufactures Association, told Pharmabiz.

Narayan Reddy added that during the year BDMA has made recommendation with respect to strengthening of research and higher education in pharmacy, which has not been considered in the budget.

It's a vision less budget and is politically oriented considering the elections. The sops with respect to medical equipments and chemicals favour the MNCs and big players in API segment respectively. Moreover, nothing has been done with respect to bringing down the MRP based excise duty from 16 per cent to 8 per cent, if this would have been considered then the budget can be called as 'for the Aam Admi'. Because there are no signs of making affordable drugs available to consumers, V S Chakaravarthi, vice president, Organisation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers said.

"This is a status-quo budget as nothing has been changed. Considering the economic survey the industry would have been getting more and more research oriented projects but it is not the case. If we want to be global players there should be reduction in taxes, which has not been done as far as the contract research is concerned. There were some sops in the previous budget which have again been taken back by the government" Venkat Jasti, managing director, Suven Life Sciences, opined.

Welcoming the move towards health care sector, Dr K Hari Prasad, chief executive officer, Apollo Hospitals, said that nation has made a significant progress on the healthcare front and there is still a huge untapped potential. Removal of service tax on clinical trials will have a positive impact on the healthcare sector.