Indian government think-tank proposing sweeping changes to boost pharma sector

Sweeping changes are afoot at India's Health Ministry to encourage innovation in the pharmaceutical sector and to ensure speedier approvals for conducting medical research. A government think-tank called NITI Aayog, or the National Institution for Transforming India, is keen to arrest further loss of drug business to China, reports The Pharma Letter’s India correspondent.

Backed by the Indian Prime Minister’s Office, NITI Aayog is drumming up plans and simplifying requisite procedures to attract more investment and help innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, with an aim to make India an innovation and manufacturing hub.

NITI Aayog has been mandated the task of addressing the main challenges before the government in terms of quality healthcare and affordable medicines to the poorer sections. In a letter to the Health Ministry, the think-tank has detailed numerous strategies - from unleashing a biotech boom in India, to countering the API threat from China, to reviewing the drug price control regime, to providing free dialysis for those below the poverty line, to increasing the basket of vaccines under the Universal Immunization Program - even as it called for examination into and scraping all regulatory hurdles in achieving its plans.