Pharma sector needs global collaboration: Industry leaders, government officials | Economic Times

WASHINGTON: The need of global collaboration in the pharma sector from research and development to drug manufacturing has never been as great as it is now amid the deadly COVID pandemic, industry leaders and officials from India and the United States said Sunday.Ahead of the 14th edition of the annual BioPharma and Healthcare Summit, that bring stakeholders from India and the United States on one platform, officials and industry leaders said the global health crisis requires a global solution, which can be achieved through global collaboration.India and the United States can play a lead role in this, they said.“The pandemic has two important lessons. We have come together with speed to take current research to the benefit of the patient without compromising quality. Yet, the breakdown of global supply chains has affected industries, livelihoods and lives,” said K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India ahead of the annual summit hosted by USA India Chamber of Commerce (USAIC).“Now, we have a task to ensure that we embed the positive into our processes and create new global collaborations so that the negatives do not happen again. These new collaborations will be anchored on mutual trust and value,” Raghavan said ahead of the day-long virtual summit on September 4, which previously had been held in Boston.“The earlier braid that tightly held science, industry, health and economics has come apart. We now have the task of plaiting a new braid that can deliver the fruits of research faster and better to help people lead healthier lives,” Raghavan said, hoping that the panels and discussions of the summit will show the way forward to a new way of collaboration. He is also a USAIC Advisory Board member.The event will bring together global leaders from across the industry including senior executives from biotech and pharmaceutical companies, academia, the investment community and policymakers to engage in active debate and idea generation for successful collaboration between India and the global healthcare ecosystem, USAIC said.“It's heartening to see how quickly our industry leaders have joined forces to discover, develop and deliver potential solutions to address COVID-19,” said Andrew Plump, president of R&D, Takeda and chair, USAIC Biopharma & Healthcare Summit.“We're creating new models for COVID-19 and operating at a speed that's unprecedented. These learnings should be applied moving forward -- past today's pandemic and beyond a ‘new normal,' to create a ‘new exceptional',” Plum said.NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said the institutes of national importance in India have a large talent pool of researchers and scientists with specialized expertise in BioPharma, providing an opportunity for international collaboration in drug discovery, innovation and R&D.“Even though there was a decline in pharmaceutical production in April 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, India's indigenous pharmaceutical industry quickly recovered and registered a strong growth of 34.6 percent in June 2020,” Kant said, adding he looks forward to hearing from global BioPharma leaders during the summit on ways to drive collaborative R&D in BioPharma and promote global partnerships in India.“In these unprecedented times we need to stay positive and motivated -- and more importantly, sustain an active dialogue that is forward-looking and aspirational,” said Karun Rishi, president, USAIC.As a service to the global BioPharma community, the USAIC is offering free registration to summit participants this year, said Rishi.US-India collaboration has enormous potential in discovering, developing and manufacturing innovative therapeutics, said Hari Bhartia, co-chairman, Jubilant Life Sciences and USAIC Advisory Board member, who has been attending USAIC's annual summit for over a decade.This year is of particular significance since Covid has highlighted the importance of a collaborative approach to R&D and market access to tackle pandemics, address unmet medical needs and make healthcare innovation affordable and accessible in a timely manner, he said.Noting that every nation, rich or poor has faced human suffering, loss of lives and economic hardship due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Rishi said this is indeed a global health crisis which requires a global solution.USAIC has been advocating the approach of global collaborative partnerships for BioPharma research and development for the last fifteen years he said.Combined annual R&D budget of few BioPharma leaders participating in the summit is more than USD45 billion. It is rare to see such a large number of decision-makers committed to the cause of innovation and patients at a conference, said Rishi.Some of the global BioPharma leaders participating in the summit are: Kenneth Frazier, Chairman & CEO of Merck & Co, Roy Vagelos, chairman of Regeneron; Stelios Papadopoulos, chairman of Biogen; Andrew Plump, president of R&D, Takeda; Mathai Mammen, Global Head of Janssen R&D, Johnson & Johnson; Hal Barron, president R&D, GlaxoSmithKline; David Reese, head of R&D, Amgen; Richard Hatchett, CEO, CEPI; and Elias Zerhouni, former Director of NIH. PTI LKJof collaboration. He is also a USAIC Advisory Board member.The event will bring together global leaders from across the industry including senior executives from biotech and pharmaceutical companies, academia, the investment community and policymakers to engage in active debate and idea generation for successful collaboration between India and the global healthcare ecosystem, USAIC said.“It's heartening to see how quickly our industry leaders have joined forces to discover, develop and deliver potential solutions to address COVID-19,” said Andrew Plump, president of R&D, Takeda and chair, USAIC Biopharma & Healthcare Summit.“We're creating new models for COVID-19 and operating at a speed that's unprecedented. These learnings should be applied moving forward -- past today's pandemic and beyond a ‘new normal,' to create a ‘new exceptional',” Plum said.NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said the institutes of national importance in India have a large talent pool of researchers and scientists with specialized expertise in BioPharma, providing an opportunity for international collaboration in drug discovery, innovation and R&D.“Even though there was a decline in pharmaceutical production in April 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, India's indigenous pharmaceutical industry quickly recovered and registered a strong growth of 34.6 percent in June 2020,” Kant said, adding he looks forward to hearing from global BioPharma leaders during the summit on ways to drive collaborative R&D in BioPharma and promote global partnerships in India.“In these unprecedented times we need to stay positive and motivated -- and more importantly, sustain an active dialogue that is forward-looking and aspirational,” said Karun Rishi, president, USAIC.As a service to the global BioPharma community, the USAIC is offering free registration to summit participants this year, said Rishi.US-India collaboration has enormous potential in discovering, developing and manufacturing innovative therapeutics, said Hari Bhartia, co-chairman, Jubilant Life Sciences and USAIC Advisory Board member, who has been attending USAIC's annual summit for over a decade.This year is of particular significance since Covid has highlighted the importance of a collaborative approach to R&D and market access to tackle pandemics, address unmet medical needs and make healthcare innovation affordable and accessible in a timely manner, he said.Noting that every nation, rich or poor has faced human suffering, loss of lives and economic hardship due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Rishi said this is indeed a global health crisis which requires a global solution.USAIC has been advocating the approach of global collaborative partnerships for BioPharma research and development for the last fifteen years he said.Combined annual R&D budget of few BioPharma leaders participating in the summit is more than USD45 billion. It is rare to see such a large number of decision-makers committed to the cause of innovation and patients at a conference, said Rishi.Some of the global BioPharma leaders participating in the summit are: Kenneth Frazier, Chairman & CEO of Merck & Co, Roy Vagelos, chairman of Regeneron; Stelios Papadopoulos, chairman of Biogen; Andrew Plump, president of R&D, Takeda; Mathai Mammen, Global Head of Janssen R&D, Johnson & Johnson; Hal Barron, president R&D, GlaxoSmithKline; David Reese, head of R&D, Amgen; Richard Hatchett, CEO, CEPI; and Elias Zerhouni, former Director of NIH.