The Pharmaceutical Leadership Summit 2009 will be held at Mumbai on April 3, 2009. The event is being held in association with Pharmexcil, Indian Drug Manufacturer's Association (IDMA), Indian Pharmaceutical Associations (IPA) and the Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI).

Proceeds from the summit will go in aid of Akshaya Patra, the world's largest run school meal program which is feeding around one million school children everyday across India. The event which was scheduled to be held in Bangalore in December last year, did not take off and has now shifted to the country's business capital, Mumbai.

The topic of the summit is 'Destination India - Challenges & Opportunities'. Pharma company heads including Malvinder Singh of Ranbaxy, Kiran Mazumdar of Biocon Lid, Kewal Handa of Pfizer Ltd, Anuj Saxena of Elder Healthcare, Dr Ramakant Panda of Asian Heart Institute, Ranjit shahani of Novartis will be participating. More than 400 industry professionals, Pharma Academia, bureaucrats, medical practitioners will be attending the high profile event.

By hosting the Pharma summit at a time when the nation is being rocked by instability in the economy and the corporate world, the summit will also send out a message that the Pharma and associated industries continue to progress and have managed to shrug off the effects of the global economic slowdown.