The Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has asked the union health ministry to create an ecosystem for spurring R&D and innovation in the field of pharmaceuticals in the country.

In this connection, the FICCI suggested to the government for setting up a 'National R&D Observatory' in India, which will provide technical support to establish a system to monitor R&D investments and pipelines and recognising the considerable gaps that exist.

The FICCI is of the view that the global pharmaceutical industry is highly research intensive and spend around 15 per cent turnover in R&D.  However, in India it is still low with less than 2 per cent spending. Although the Indian private players have increased investments in R&D, the focus is on the thriving generics business instead of new drug discovery. As a global player we need to remove this weakness in the system by initiating several measures.

FICCI also asked the health ministry to ensure flow of funds by raising the weighted tax deduction from 200 per cent to 250 per cent  and extending it to clinical trials as well. It also pleaded for extending exemption from excise/custom duties on raw materials, capital goods and diagnostic kits.

A high level FICCI delegation led by its president Sidharth Birla, which met union health minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan recently, stressed the need for building synergy with industry and major government institutions and  universities for technology transfer and Intellectual Property Right for research and innovation.  The delegation also apprised the minister about the need for encouraging innovation on continuous basis in order to create a favourable environment for incubation of new and unique recombinant biologics that will address the three issues of affordability, availability and quality in overall healthcare scenario.