Indian pharma leaders call for collaboration, partnerships to spur innovation

Sun Pharma, said that the industry has been taking tentative steps towards innovation. “People are making investments to create capacity within their organization to manage innovation, so that at a certain point of time, we can become an equally important player globally in terms of innovative products,” he said.“But I still don't see innovation at scale…We are very tentative in terms of that investment,” he said.

The way to manage a generic drugs business and an innovative drugs business are very different, Shanghvi emphasized, saying that the latter requires a recalibration of “our thinking process and our process of taking investment decisions”.The discussion, featuring Shanghvi alongside Aurobindo Pharma whole-time director Madan Mohan Reddy, Lupin managing director Nilesh Gupta and Zydus Lifesciences managing director Sharvil Patel, focused on a growing industry consensus: Indian pharma must move up the value chain to develop innovative drugs.Zydus was one of the early starters—with the company focusing on research and innovation as early as 1995. While it has developed strong in-house capabilities, collaboration will be key for scale, said Patel.

“When I say innovation at scale, it doesn't mean that we have to discover everything ourselves. We can co-create, collaborate, license, partner, co-develop and there are so many ways by which we can create in India both these ways,” said Patel.It's not just about working with other companies, but also with academic institutions, scientific advisory boards, regulatory bodies, and more, Shanghvi added.The panel highlighted the importance of early winners to increase conviction.