Indian pharma industry sees that support from the government in the form of enabling regulations and infrastructure are imperative for the success of the 'Make in India' programme.

“We have emerged as a role model globally in being self-sufficient in generic formulation. In order to sustain this current competitive advantage and to help extend our capability in new areas, the government will need to play a critical role in helping the lifesciences industry to achieve its full potential”, said Pankaj Patel, chairman and managing director, Zydus Cadila and senior vice president, FICCI Pharmaceutical Committee.

The ‘Make in India’ is more relevant now with the efforts of the industry to look at import substitution. Now this programme is seen to be a great way to cover the healthcare needs. While we are in the right direction, a key concern is that this programme is now seen to create large scope for employment opportunities,” pointed out Annaswamy Vaidheesh, vice president, South Asia and managing director, GlaxoSmithKline.

In the case of GSK, we have been in India for the last 90 years and we have also invested Rs. 1,000 crore in a new advanced manufacturing plant near Bengaluru for solid dosage forms. This facility is built keeping in mind the future developments. The project is advancing in full steam with speedy clearances from the one-stop office of the Karnataka government that is on similar lines of what China offers, he added.

According to Dr Habil Khorakiwala, founder-chairman, Wockhardt, pharma industry in India is continuously evolving and over 50 per cent of drugs are exported from each company which is a reinstates the ‘Make in India’ for global markets. The next leap by the industry is to manufacture the complex biosimilars and biologics. If we are provided the right eco-system, then it is only a leap-forward for the sector.

Contending with the rest of the industry chiefs was Srini Srinivasan, managing director, Hospira – Pfizer company who said that incentives, tax structures and investments from the government should be free flowing.

“The 'Make in India' campaign perspective has been inspiring and this led Hospira to invest in a largest sterile injectable greenfield plant at Vizag. Through this campaign Indian pharma needs to capitalize on remaining competitive and ensure scale-up which are vital aspects to win the global market place,” he said.

The industry experts, who were deliberating on a session titled ‘Make in India – Are we on track’ at the India Pharma and India Medical Devices Expo 2016, agreed that an enabling eco-system was found wanting and there was a need to move from vanilla generics to value added drugs for which all companies had the capability.

“To 'Make in India', government has to provide the incentives for R&D which can ensure continuous innovation to be globally competitive. Currently, 50 per cent of the manufacturing for multinational companies including Pfizer, Novartis and GSK was in India. Therefore the country is already a strategic production hub.”