BioAsia 2022 – Inauguration speech by Mr. KT Rama Rao, Minister for Industries & Commerce, IT and MAUD, Government of Telangana

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Mr. KT Rama Rao, Minister for Industries & Commerce, IT and MAUD, Government of Telangana

National, 24th February 2022 (GNI): On behalf of the State of Telangana, I welcome you all to BioAsia 2022. I’m delighted and honored to inaugurate the 19^th edition of BioAsia, our annual flagship event.

I’m extremely pleased that BioAsia has been able to weave a meaningful and pivotal narrative for almost 2 decades. I sincerely believe that the deliberations at BioAsia will continue to guide the growth trajectory of Life Sciences sector in the State, Country and the world at large.

At the outset, I would like to extend my hearty congratulations to the recipient of the coveted ‘Genome Valley Excellence Award’ for the year 2022, Dr. Drew Weissman for his pioneering work on mRNA, which ultimately led to the development of both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. His contributions are indeed remarkable and helped save millions of lives globally.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has placed a spotlight on the importance of the life sciences industry and the need to build robust healthcare systems. It is in this context, I believe the theme of this year – ‘Future Ready’ is extremely timely. As the life sciences industry develops its future growth strategy, it is the right time to assess our current position and deliberate on the imperatives for the future growth.

I’m immensely proud of the fact that Hyderabad continues to make an indelible imprint in the Life Sciences sector not just in India but also globally. I am delighted to share with you that the Life Sciences sector in the State of Telangana has attracted investments worth more than INR 6,400 crores (USD 850+ Million) from about 215 companies – both existing and new entrants – and has created additional employment for more than 34,000 people in last one year alone. This is almost 200% more than the investment attracted by the Sector in the previous year, which clearly underscores the growing role and impact of Hyderabad’s life sciences ecosystem and the State’s endeavor to ensure required support to the sector.

Genome Valley’s prominence has been recognized globally in the wake of the pandemic, with most of the country’s vaccine manufacturers being from this cluster. It is a matter of immense pride for us that 2 out of the 3 indigenously developed vaccines – Covaxin and Corbevax – are from Hyderabad. Also, both the vaccines which are approved in India for children are from Hyderabad. 

Further, Genome valley continues to witness expansion of several pharmaceutical companies. Syngene International, a leading CRO is expanding its operations in the cluster. Further, a Germany-headquartered global leader in pharmaceutical excipient solutions, DFE Pharma, is set to launch their center of excellence named as Closer to the Formulator (C2F). Also, Yapan Bio, which started in Genome Valley, recently saw investment from Piramal Pharma of more than INR 100 crores to continue their expansion in the cluster. Also, companies like Porus Life Sciences, CVR Life Sciences, Dandu Bio Sciences and Laurus Synthesis are investing around Rs. 500 crores cumulatively in the cluster.

Similarly, the State of Telangana had identified medical devices as a high-potential, high growth sector, creating immense opportunities, and to our expectations, the sector is growing leaps and bounds. In December, I had the honor of inaugurating 7 companies in Medical Devices Park and almost 20 more facilities will be operational in the next 6 months. The park now has over 50 companies setting up their manufacturing and R&D units with an overall investment commitment of around Rs. 1500 Crores and total employment of around 7,000 direct jobs, in addition to about Rs. 1500 crores of investment from companies like Medtronic, B-Braun, etc in Hyderabad. I am excited about the ongoing advanced discussions with some of the companies, which I am hopeful of announcing soon.

On the pharmaceutical front, we are inching closer to the launch of the world’s largest pharmaceutical cluster, Hyderabad Pharma City. The cluster has been planned with the most advanced and efficient utility and environmental infrastructure, with the objective of increasing cost-competitiveness of the industry ultimately making affordable and quality medicines available for the citizens globally. I have personally had an opportunity to interact with experts around the world and I can state, with great pride, that the cluster will truly redefine the landscape of pharmaceuticals and also industrial clusters globally.

We remain committed to the environment and also promoting sustainable practices. As one of the many steps in this direction, we have set up a multi-industry supported innovation and technology hub for Flow Chemistry in Hyderabad as an initiative aimed towards ensuring greater adoption of greener manufacturing processes.

BioAsia has been instrumental in showcasing our policies, infrastructure, ecosystem and achievements globally, in addition to helping us shape our strategy based on inputs from the industry leaders. The flagship event helps us play a catalytic role in bringing stakeholders together and enabling deliberations on topics of global relevance.

I am keenly looking forward to the sessions lined-up over the next two days with an exceedingly eclectic and proficient cast of speakers. I am also looking forward to chatting with Mr. Bill Gates this evening on a variety of topics concerning global health.

As we talk about Future readiness over the next two days and discuss the role of stakeholders, it is imperative for the Government to play a key enabling role in helping industries be future ready.

India has a prominent presence in the global pharmaceutical industry and is regarded the pharmacy capital of the world. While India ranks third in terms of volume, we are only 14th in terms of value in the global pharma market. There is a huge gap in value and volume contribution, which can be filled only by moving up in the value chain. The gap cannot be bridged with incremental innovation in generics alone but we must build our capabilities in areas like complex generics, biologics & biosimilars, cell and gene therapy, breakthrough R&D, clinical research, etc. Government needs to stand with the industry to see how some of the pricing pressures can be balanced with strong volume growth. And how our capable human talent can be leveraged as a core differentiator globally, and how more R&D can be incentivized to quickly move up the value chain.

While some of the Indian healthcare companies have achieved global scale, the presence of global healthcare companies in the country is limited and their growth is also declining over the years. As of now, India represents just a small percentage of global revenue for most of them, even though we have close to 18% of global population. We must encourage trans-national healthcare companies to invest in India as they can help India play a much larger role in the global value chain.

It is important to create a more conducive environment for the healthcare companies to develop, operate and manufacture in the Country and make these innovative drugs & devices available for our citizens. While the policies and regulations have improved in the Country, there is so much more to be done in terms of our IP policy and enforcement framework, regulatory reforms, development of ancillary industries, pricing policy rationalization, reimbursement schemes, duty structure correction particularly for medical devices and rare diseases drugs, incentives to support R&D investment, among others to accelerate economic growth and also, make healthcare delivery better and more importantly affordable.

I request Government of India to consider these long pending demands from the industry and help the sector achieve its full potential. I strongly believe, with the right set of investments and support enablers, India can become a leader in life sciences innovation than just being a fast follower.

I would like to highlight that the State of Telangana is striving to “Lead by Example” and are focused on some of the key pillars that are within the ambit of the State Government by way of creating advanced scientific infrastructure, training industry-ready talent pool, rationalizing state-level regulations & clearances, promoting linkages between industry and academia in a more systematic & institutionalized manner, among others. I am confident of achieving our target to become a USD 100 billion valuation by 2030 (up from USD50 billion in 2020) driven by innovation.

I take this opportunity to congratulate and thank my team, the partners and the sponsors for organizing this year’s event.ends