The recently concluded CEOs Conclave held in Hyderabad had set the target of crossing $25 billion pharma exports by the end of 2014. As per the latest statistics of DGCI (Director General of Commercial Intelligence), Indian drugs and pharmaceuticals accounted for $11.5 billion exports with a growth rate of 30 per cent during 2011-2012.

The Pharma CEOs Conclave, which was organized by Pharmexcil, was held alongside India-Asia Pacific International Pharma Business Meet from 26-28th September. The CEOs conclave held a panel discussion on "Achieving Export Turnover of $25 billion by March 2014 - Challenges ahead". Pressing further to improve the pharmaceutical exports, the panelists stressed that the government should do more to encourage the industry especially in the SME segment.

Many speakers highlighted that India is becoming the global R&D hub and Indian generic drugs are in great demand across the world for their low-cost and high quality. Since 2007-08, pharmaceutical exports have been growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20 per cent. The pharma industry is the sixth largest exporter of the country accounting for 4.34 per cent of India's total exports.

The panelists who took part in discussion were Abhaya Kumar from Shasun Chemicals; Ajit Singh from ACG Worldwide; Naresh Gupta from Lupin; Rajeev Nannapaneni from Natco Pharma; Ranjan Chakravarthy from Ranbaxy Laboratories; Srinivasa Reddy from Hetero Drugs; and Venkat Jassi from Suven Lilfesciences. During their discussion, the CEOs discussed various aspects of government policy, domestic and international regulations and prevailing challenges pertaining to the industry.

Prior to CEOs conclave, the India-Asia Pacific event attracted 70 international delegates from 15 countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia and New Zealand among others. These delegates had one-on-one meetings with over 152 pharma-related companies in India.

The last day of the event witnessed the award distribution ceremony wherein many leading pharma companies were awarded with platinum, gold and silver awards for their performance in various segments. For instance Cipla Limited received overall performance award for its excellence in all categories for the year 2011-12. Mylan received Gold and Glenmark received silver awards in formulation category while Aurobindo and Lupin received Gold and Silver awards in Bulk drugs category respectively.

“Government of India is encouraging the Pharma sector in every aspect. The industry is enjoying excellent rapport with drug regulators in India and we will continue to assist them with the export of their drugs. The three-day meet had given a platform for all the entities of the pharma sector. Regulators, policy makers and CEOs of the pharma industry participated and shared their views and advocated a roadmap to boost pharma exports to $25 billion by end of 2014," said Dr P V Appaji, director general of Pharmexcil.