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Mysuru’s academic strengths provide potential for pharma investments
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
August 26 , 2021
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Drawing up a plan to develop Mysuru as a pharmaceutical hub, experts called for exploiting the city’s education eco-system in the areas of medical, dental and pharmacy, inculcating entrepreneurship among students, establishment of a knowledge hub and a technology commercialization cell.
These were part of the suggestions made by participants of a round table meeting on developing pharmaceutical entrepreneurs & industries in the Mysuru region. The conference also mooted a Centre of Excellence for Biocommons in academia, besides some steps by the government like speedy grant and licensing process for green chemistry companies through a reliable single-window system, mentorship, helping in IP related matters, incentivize R&D and financial support to spur growth of pharmaceutical, medical devices companies, including dossier & CRO service providers.
The four Mysuru pharmacy colleges---JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research (JSS AHER), Farooqia College of Pharmacy, Sarada Vilas Educational Institute and Kaveri College of Pharmacy ---have provided talent to clinical research service to MNCs like BioClinica Inc.
From an investment standpoint, experts at the event organised by Karnataka Registered Pharmacist Association, led by Dr Kaushik Devaraju, highlighted the high quality of life and low cost associated for setting up the enterprises in Mysuru and nearby areas. This would encourage the qualified personnel to stay in Mysuru and contribute to the growth of pharmaceutical firms.
Dr Suresh Bhojraj, president, PCI and pro-chancellor JSS AHER, said pharma industry should move forward and succeed on a sustainable business model.
Amaresh Tumbagi, Karnataka additional drugs controller stated that the regulator can facilitate entrepreneurship with streamlined and time bound approvals.
Sunil Attavar, president, Karnataka Drugs and Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association said that since Mysore was an ecologically sensitive area, we need to look beyond only manufacturing to develop the pharma ecosystem.
Mysore has some great institutions in pharmacy, medical, engineering, IT, apart from research centers. We should capitalise on the existing knowledge intensive infrastructure of the city and over the next 7 years work to develop it as Pharma Knowledge Hub. The city should encash on its strengths and focus on research, clinical trial, bioinformatics, digital tech like artificial intelligence/machine learning among others. Therefore, we need to maximise infrastructure of Sparkles in JSS which is a facilitation centre for concepts to be nurtured to commission product research that could lead to patent filing. We need to move up the value chain. Here Mysore and JSS have the right ecosystem to support this, noted the KDPMA president.
Noting that pharma entrepreneurs need clarity in vision and need to move on from generic drugs to other high value niche formulations, Harish K Jain, secretary, KDPMA and director, Embiotic Labs said for Mysuru to become a vibrant pharma manufacturing base would be tough in the wake of the stringent and rigid pollution control norms making environmental clearances a challenge.
According to SN Rao, CMD, Supreem Pharmaceuticals, Mysuru cannot thrive in the shadow of Bengaluru. Just as Pune came out of Mumbai’s shadow and has its own recognition, Mysuru too has to move out of the shadow of Bengaluru. For this we have to improve our infrastructure.
There are several challenges for Mysuru to achieve this. Karnataka needs to take a cue from Gujarat and Orissa which have been known for their reliability in wooing entrepreneurs and for quick project clearances, said Rao.
Ramya Kumbale, director Resonance Labs called for collaboration of government, industry and academia to get the right workforce as pharma is both human resource and capital intensive.
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