'India to emerge as one of the top five global innovative hub of pharma contributing 50 per cent 2 d drugs discovered worldwide/Joint initiative on TB

'India to emerge as global innovative hub of pharma'

BS Reporter / Chennai/ Hyderabad September 05, 2011, 0:28 IST

President Pratibha Patil on Sunday said that the country had a potential to emerge as one of the top five innovative hubs in the global pharmaceutical sector, contributing 50 per cent to the drugs discovered worldwide. She complimented the domestic pharma industry for showing the world a way in affordable healthcare through development of generic drugs.

The President inaugurated the 71st World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences that kicked-off in Hyderabad on Sunday. Organised by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (IPF), the four-day event with the theme ’Compromising quality and safety - A risky path’, saw the participation of 2,000 delegates from 88 countries.

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While lauding the contributions made by pharmacy scientists world over for their efforts in finding remedies to eliminate the mankind’s suffering from diseases, the President, however, cautioned on the risks involved in this area.

“It is estimated that more than 50 per cent of all the medicine worldwide are prescribed, dispensed or old inappropriately. About 50 per cent of patients fail to take them correctly. This results in health complications,” she said in her address.

Aware of enormity of the task of ensuring the safe and judicious use of medicines, the Centre has initiated a National Pharmacovigilance Programme in July 2010 to monitor the adverse drug reactions of medicines on Indian population, she said.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry has a wide range of capabilities and is already contributing a substantial share to the global production. “Our pharmaceutical products are known to be of good quality, safety and efficacy. Indian generic drugs have helped in bringing down the cost of treatment of various diseases worldwide, which include HIV/AIDS,” the President said.

Patil also stressed on the need to respond to the emerging patterns of diseases, and to growing concerns about disease-causing agents becoming resistant to existing drugs. With its proven IT sector, demonstrated leadership in biotechnology, a vast pool of trained personnel and cost advantages, India can emerge as a significant player in global pharmaceutical research, she said.

The President wanted the industry to be self-vigilant about unscrupulous elements that compromise on quality and safety of drugs, to complement the governmental efforts to check such practices.

Joint initiative on tuberculosis

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the IPF signed a joint statement on the role of pharmacists in tuberculosis care and control at the Congress today. The statement establishes a series of measures to help detect TB, offer treatment support to TB patients, and substantially reduce the number of deaths from TB.