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Exploring partnerships with govts & NGOs can expand access to essential medicines: Sunil Attavar
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
August 24 , 2023
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In an effort to provide affordability and availability of medicines, the Indian pharma manufacturers will need to explore partnerships with governments and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) to expand access to essential medicines, said Sunil Attavar, former president, Karnataka Drugs and Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (KDPMA).
There is also a need to ensure better participation in the government tenders by removing monopolistic clauses for the pharma industry. Further, he added that efforts need to be made to expand the list of medicines covered under government schemes, at least a Quick Reference of the top 1,000 brands sold in India.
The industry needs to adopt efficient manufacturing practices, invest in R&D to create cost-effective formulations, upgrade quality management systems, and make the supply chain more efficient. Another crucial component is investment in incremental innovation with a focus on bringing down costs, increase shelf life in collaboration with academia, Attavar said.
Investing on building economies-of-scale, manufacture closer home with regional clusters and invest in import substitution will transform the Indian pharma landscape towards affordability and availability of medicines for the masses.
In order to bolster role of pharmaceutical manufacturers to ensure affordability and availability of medicines, the industry will need to collaborate with innovators to bring the latest products into the country sooner at affordable costs, engage with the government & other stakeholders to come up with long-term sustainable plans, he noted.
Further, the industry sees an imminent need to propose to the Union government to bring OPD (out patient department) under the PM-JAY programme, recommend a Jan Aushadi shelf at all chemist shops, engage with stakeholders to bring a rational prescription policy, self-regulate the cost of high priced medicines like anti-cancer and other critical care conditions and widen the list of medicines that are covered under government schemes, said Attavar.
Manufacturers in India must continue to play a pivotal role in ensuring the affordability & availability of medicines by producing high-quality products at competitive prices. We would be able to achieve this by collaborating with regulatory bodies to ensure compliance, he said.
Adopting efficient manufacturing practices and engaging in research and development to create cost-effective formulations is also a pertinent move. The reality in India is that only a mere 38% of the population use the public sector facilities including ESIC.
Known as the pharmacy of the world, our pharma industry’s high quality and affordable medicines reached every nook and corner in the country and there was no shortage of any medicines, even during the Covid pandemic and other emergency situations. The industry will need to collaborate with regulatory bodies to ensure compliance as it will allow us to exceed quality expectations beyond what is prescribed, said Attavar.
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