Mission 2020, A Revised Agenda For Indian Pharma

The sector has done well compared to others but growth challenges remain

- PT Jyothi Datta

Over the last several years, many a vision statement projected a robust trajectory for the pharmaceutical industry by the year 2020. The widely accepted projections held out by representatives of the Indian government and industry pegged the pharmaceutical segment at $55 billion by 2020. It is 2020. But is the industry there yet?

An earlier international report by PwC had used the iconic Dickensian line, “It was the best of the times, it was the worst of times”, to describe the global pharmaceutical landscape fraught with challenges and opportunities.

The same could be said of the Indian pharmaceutical arena, with the last decade seeing some defining cases on the patent regulatory pathway in the early years, for instance. But as the decade ended, discussions around a country’s right to use a compulsory licence (CL), for example, continue to raise the temperature on both sides of the pharmaceutical divide, some saying the provision is used too little and others claiming exactly the opposite. A CL allows a country to get a third manufacturer to make an innovative drug at a reduced price and on payment of royalty, in the larger public interest.