Global pharma companies pushing to innovate in India: OPPI president

drugs

The Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), a network of global pharma companies in India, recently launched Bharat Ke Liye, a reinforcement of the industry body’s commitment to improving health outcomes in India. The body says that over the last few years, through a host of initiatives such as MSD’s R&D centre in Bengaluru, Pfizer’s investment of Rs 150 crore to set up global drug development centre in Chennai and Novartis Biome India, a digital innovation hub in Hyderabad, the companies want to demonstrate the industry’s efforts towards solving for the country’s healthcare challenges.

In an interview to Moneycontrol, OPPI president Suresh Pattathil says these developments are crucial at various levels. Edited excerpts:

When it comes to foreign pharma companies in India, what are they doing now that they were not doing earlier?

India is called the pharmacy of the world and we may be producing a large volume of products which are basically chemical entities. But despite the fact that we are producing a large volume of drugs for the global market as well as India, we are participating in only 5 percent of the value market. So in 95 percent of the value market, we are not there at all because generics, branded generics and chemical entities are a small chunk of the total sale value. This realisation is also within the government now so there has been a change in the thought process. That’s why there is greater push towards innovation. As of today, if we talk about 20-25 of the most valuable generic companies, 15-16 would be Indian, but if we talk about most valuable 20 to 25 biotechs, there is probably one, Serum Institute of India, standing at 18th or 19th position.

Changes are happening now and many stakeholders are playing their part and innovative companies, Indian or global, can come and invest to take molecules—being developed at incubated centres—from the lab to the marketplace. We still have a long way to go and it may take a long time discovering new molecules which can be taken to the marketplace after proving that it is safe and efficacious and works well on patients.

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Do you see any strengths that India can capitalise on?

India has always been a very fertile ground for formulation research. For example, if there is an existing product, can we find different delivery systems or better formulation? So if it is three tablets a day, can I find a tablet which can be given only once a day? We have been pretty good at formulation development and research but not as much effort has gone into discovering new entities, new molecules, new targeted therapies, new ways and mechanisms of treating a disease. That is something where the investment, research and effort has not gone into but now there is a clear understanding that we need to move up the value chain, and thereby there has to be more focus and more investment in these areas, which will enable us, for example, to bring out the first of the new molecules of the future.

To tell the truth, no major pharmaceutical breakthrough or molecule has come out of India for any prominent diseases. So we have a long way to go.

Will we see any positive developments out of the R&D centres established by any of the foreign companies in the near future?

It's too early because these centres have come up only over the last couple of years. Unlike a product such as a mobile phone whose new model can be brought out every year, it may take 10 years or more for a biological product to come to the market and it may succeed or it may not succeed. This is the reason why there is so much consolidation happening in the pharmaceutical space and we are trying to ensure that the research and development investment continues to happen.