India has potential to be a leader in bio-medicine: ICMR DG Rajiv Bahl hails union budget

By Shalini Bhardwaj
New Delhi [India], February 1 : Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research, Dr Rajiv Bahl on Sunday hailed the increased allocation to health research in the Union Budget and praised the launch of the 'Bio-Pharma Shakti initiative', saying that India has the potential to become a leader in growing bio-medicine market.
Apart from the increased allocation, the central drug regulator has been strengthened, a plan for building over 1,000 medical trial sites has been announced, and cancer medicines have been exempted from custom duties.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget on Sunday, allocating Rs 10,000 crore with the aim to make India biopharma hub.
"Research and Development particularly for health sector, pharma sector, for new medicines, new innovation is very important and critical. Like the Department of Health Research's budget has been increased from 3,900 crores since last year to more than 4,820 crores. This is almost a 24 per cent increase in one year. This will be very significant, of our department, Indian Council of Medical Research for bringing forward research in health sector," Doctor Bahl told ANI.
Speaking on the bio-pharma sector, the ICMR DG said that this sector is a growing space, and the scheme will hugely benefit to bring forward the vision of Viksit Bharat.
"The bio-pharma Shakti initiative which was launched by Finance Minister, is very important to bring forward the vision of Prime Minister's vision for Viksit Bharat. The bio-pharma, which are biological medicines is growing at a rapid space and our country can be one of the most forward countries in this. This scheme will benefit this," he said.
The budget is meant to support industry, and bring in new 'bio-medicines which will enable exports of cheaper medicines to other countries too.
"The industry is being supported so they can do research and development so that we not only bring bio-similar, but also bring in new bio-medicines, meaning the medicines which are very expensive, we can make them here itself. This will not only benefit our country people but our companies can also export that to other countries, which is in line with 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' and also strengthening our economy," he said.
"Apart from supporting R and D, and supporting companies, there are other parts, one is related to CDSCO (Central Drug Standard Control Organisation). To strengthen our scientific cadre, the big step is that our regulator has been made stronger, when that happens our regulator will be giving faster approvals for our medicines, and our companies will benefit," he added.
Talking about the central drug regulator, the CDSCO, he added, "Another important thing is the 1,000 medical trial sites which will be under ICMR. We will be given the responsibility of making and bringing them forward. We will work with all our will, CDSCO, ICMR, and Department of Pharmaceuticals will work to bring forward the scheme. So that a transformation, a revolution of bio-medicines will happen."
Speaking about a focus on serious illnesses, cancer medicines have been exempted from customs duties, and 7 additional illnesses have been included in the National Rare Diseases Program.
"Today's announcement is also important for people with serious illnesses, this shows that the Modi government, and the leadership of Nadda ji, a lot of work is being done for ordinary citizens under him. Keeping these in mind, cancer medicines have been exempted from custom duties, and rare diseases are also in focus with 7 more illnesses included in the National rare diseases program. We hope that many people suffering from these illnesses will benefit," he said.
Bio Pharma Shakti is aimed at building at making ecosystem for biopharma and biosimilar.
Among other announcements, the Union Finance Minister proposed scaling up manufacturing in strategic and frontier sectors and developing city economic regions.