The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has recently constituted a committee on pharmaceuticals to focus on issues which need special attention. Pratap Reddy of Dr Reddy's has been selected as the chairman of the committee on pharma.

The committee on pharma, which has members from different fields like Pharmexcil, Indian companies, multinational companies and others, will focus on bigger and common issues and will not focus on day-to-day issues.

The committee, in its first meeting held recently, has identified three major issues confronting the Indian pharma industry. They include: how to expand the capacities and capabilities of Indian companies; steps to be taken to image building of Indian pharma companies among the public; and the regulatory affairs. Three sub-committees have been constituted to study these issues and to come out with solutions.

The committee on steps to be taken to image building of Indian pharma companies among the public will be headed by managing director of Fresenius Kabi Rakesh Bhargava and the committee on how to expand the capacities and capabilities of Indian companies will be headed by CIPI chairman TS Jaishankar. The committee on regulatory affairs will be headed by director of Eli Lilly Mukta Arora.

CIPI chairman Jaishankar said that one of the key challenges of the committee would be to change the image of the Indian pharma companies. Though Indian companies are doing a good job in global markets, the public image about the Indian companies as origin of fake drugs has to be changed. The committee will study the scenario and will come out with some solution to refurbish the image, he said.