With a view to make the pharma industry internationally competitive by ameliorating different related programmes and implementing them in a focused manner, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) is planning Pharma Infrastructure and Innovation Development Initiative (PIIDI).

The comprehensive programme is being planned in view of the existing challenges in the global pharma sector where pipeline new drugs are drying up, MNCs are moving increasingly to generics, cost of production of new drugs are increasing and revenue margins are decreasing because of budget constraints. All these factors have led to consolidation, acquisitions, and mergers while the interests of poor per capita countries like India are not taken care of ultimately.

“There is a need to take up the challenge of development of international competitiveness and innovation capabilities of the Indian pharma in a focussed manner through synergy between government and industry. The proposed PIIDI aims at mid-to- long term development of this competitiveness with a view to provide affordable medicines, making India the destination for curing the world’s ailments in a value based manner, and extending global leadership in affordable medicines,” sources said.

These goals would be met through public-private partnership in all projects, development of world class R&D infrastructure for chemical and biological pharma products, and targeted venture capital finance for funding new drugs discovery. Another important feature is to unlock the value of idle land, managerial and financial assets, unutilized, partly or inefficiently utilised, whether in central pharma enterprises or those under the state governments and other government organisations, industrial estates, export promotion zones and parks.

International partnerships across the board with all stakeholders including NGOs and academia for mutually beneficial capability building and synergy of resources, 'not for profit but with minimal profit policy’ in terms of ROI to enable sustainable growth in initiatives, and multimodel approach for project conceptualisation and implementation will be other strategies of the PIIDI.

“In short, the PIIDI intends to establish a mechanism for seeking the involvement of multiple stakeholders in all efforts and giving assistance based on international competitiveness and performance. Though there are schemes and initiatives by the government in infrastructure and innovation, they are not pharma targeted. The PIIDI will restructure them to be pharma focussed,” sources said.