Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister D V Sadananda Gowda inaugurated the two-day Annual Summit of the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) here on December 17, 2020. The Minister Conferred the lifetime achievement and Special Recognition awards during the summit.
Addressing the summit, Gowda said that the contribution of Indian pharmaceutical sector has been reinforced during this pandemic year when the companies, global and Indian, stepped in and stepped up their efforts in service of the country. India is often referred to as ‘the pharmacy of the world.’ This has been proven completely true during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic when India continued to produce and export critical life-saving medicine to the rest of the world , the minister added, according to a PIB release.
Gowda said that without being asked, every company jumped into the fray and began working in their own specialised areas to support the national efforts to control the virus, working closely with state and central government agencies. He said that their contribution, in different ways, was despite challenges in the supply chain during lockdown to ensure that many essential medicine and medical devices and other related items were made available in a seamless manner.
Appreciating the role of pharmaceutical industry during these tough times, Gowda said that even during the lockdown, there was no shortage of medicine any where across the country.Throughout the crisis, the pharmaceutical industry worked hand in hand with the government for meeting the increasing demand – of testing kits to medicine and treatments.
He said that with the urgent need to have a vaccine coming to haunt the countries, we have witnessed the scene of many Indian and global companies moving into the laboratories and forming collaborations. It has been a commendable effort from all constituents of the industry, global companies, Indian companies, research institutes, government regulators, and the hospitals that supported in the vaccine development and the clinical trials for the vaccine development.
The Minister said that India has attracted large inflow of foreign direct investment to the pharmaceutical sector and the Medical Devices sector.More and more foreign companies wanted to set up their research, manufacturing, and clinical trials in India.
Speaking on the export part of medicine , he said that it is a fact that rest of the world receives medicine manufactured in India, and therefore India’s export of medicine has been growing steadfast as the Indian domestic market has been witnessing tremendous growth.
The Union Minister said that as a matter of record, pharmaceuticals export from India was over 20 billion dollars in 2019-20 and is expected to cross 25 billion dollars by the end of the current financial year.