Budget 2023: FM Sitharaman unveils new programme to promote innovation in pharma

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivers her fifth Budget.

Union Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman on February 1 announced that the Centre will roll out a new programme to promote research and innovation in the pharma sector, which will be taken up through centres of excellence in the country.

“A new programme to promote research and innovation in the pharma sector will be taken up through centres of excellence. We shall also encourage industry to invest in research and development in specific priority areas,” FM Sithraman told Parliament while presenting the Union Budget 2023-24.

The pharma sector had urged the centre to prioritise schemes to enhance innovation and research along with tax incentives on drug development expenditure in the upcoming budget.

Satish Reddy, chairman, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Limited, had earlier said that driving innovation and R&D in the Indian pharma sector will help propel the industry to the top globally.

“In this Budget, we hope the government will make provisions for sufficient innovation and R&D funds. Alongside, the move to promote private funding through alternate investment funds (AIFs) or venture capitalists (VCs) with an aim to encourage startups to venture into the pharma sector will be crucial,” Reddy told Moneycontrol.

The finance minister also said that the research labs of Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) will be made available to private colleges.

“Facilities in select ICMR labs will be made available for research by public and private medical college faculty and private sector R&D teams for encouraging collaborative research and innovation,” Sitharaman said.

She further said that dedicated multi-disciplinary courses for medical devices will be supported in existing institutions to ensure availability of skilled manpower for futuristic medical technologies, high-end manufacturing and research.