Yesterday we celebrated World Health Day and our Prime Minister reiterated the hope of a healthy India and access to affordable medicines. However it is very discouraging that Healthcare in India still does not seem to be receiving the priority it deserves!
We are pleased to read the views of Srinivas Reddy, director, Hetero Pharma in the Economic Times, today. Compulsory licensing hit India’s image: Hetero Pharma . In what is seen as an encouraging and refreshing stands adopted by an Indian drug maker over intellectual property (IP), Hyderabad based Hetero Pharma said that the country has lost nearly $10 billion worth of investment by not respecting IP norms.
As we will celebrate World Tuberculosis Day today, the WHO is calling for ‘global solidarity and action’ to support a new 20-year strategy which aims to end the global TB epidemic.
A recent ASSOCHAM report titled ‘The Indian Pharmaceutical Industry: Changing Dynamics and the Road Ahead’, flags areas where concerted sustained efforts need to be made by Indian pharmaceutical companies on indigenous drug discovery and innovation.
Each year around this time those of us concerned with the status of health in India dream a big dream and wait for the Finance Minister to deliver on this in some measurable and effective way. There have been some years of disappointment and some of promise. Now once again we urge the government to give health spending in India the boost it urgently needs.
Cancer remains the biggest challenge for patients, their families, healthcare providers and nations worldwide. Medical research has provided solutions to help doctors extend lives of cancer patients. New cures offer new hope of survival to cancer patients today. But the war has yet to be won and the battle continues with science leading the fight against cancer from the frontlines.
President Barack Obama’s second visit to India, and this time as the Chief Guest at our Republic Day parade, has created a huge well of goodwill and a rising tide of expectations. Prime Minister Modi reiterated his belief that India and US are “natural partners” while President Obama described relations between the two countries as the defining partnership of the 21st century. Since September 2014, India and United States have seen a deepening of strategic ties between the two nations.
The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion has invited comments on the draft IPR policy and we will submit these soon. We look forward to an efficient and transparent system, which supports all the sectors that deal with intellectual property and especially the pharmaceutical industry.
The formalisation of Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) is a long-awaited move from the Department of Pharmaceuticals that will help shape a more ethical healthcare industry.
Ushering in this New Year with new thinking, new ideas and a renewed sense of hope and optimism, Dr Shailesh Ayyangar, President, OPPI takes stock of how the pharma industry fared in 2014 and looks ahead at 2015.