The Union commerce ministry is toying with the idea of setting up a 'think tank' consisting of senior pharma professionals, CEOs, government officials, scientists, researchers and pharmacists to provide an ideal forum to identify bottlenecks and resolve various issues for overcoming challenges and promoting hassle free exports.

The issue was discussed at a meeting convened by Union commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently with senior officers from ministry of health, DCGI, department of pharmaceuticals, department of biotechnology, department of commerce and Pharmexcil to take stock of the various issues and challenges that exports of Indian pharma industry are confronted with.

According to sources, Lanka Srinivas, senior advisor, Pharmexcil gave a detailed presentation on the same. Various issues relating to Indian pharma exports including domestic and international barriers and constraints were discussed in the meeting.

Looking at the complexity of issues, the officials felt the need for convergence among policies and programmes of different departments. Since the scientific breakthroughs in chemistry, biology, microbiology, physics and biotechnology impact development of this sector directly or indirectly, it was considered important to have a platform where all these developments are shared between academia, industry and scientific community for the larger benefit of the society.

A sector like pharma which is deeply rooted in science and is truly global in nature, a think tank can provide an ideal forum to identify bottlenecks and resolve various issues for overcoming challenges and promoting hassle free exports. Indian medicines have served the humanity across all continents of the world and their contribution in fighting HIV and various other diseases in various developing countries has been particularly notable, officials noted in the meeting.