COVID-19 has provided Indian pharma industry an opportunity to fortify its position as a global force in the world of pharmaceuticals, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Chairman K. Satish Reddy said here on Friday.

Mr. Reddy, also Chairman, Board of Governors of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Hyderabad, said this pointing to how Indian pharma industry is the third largest globally by volume and known as pharmacy to the world. It catered to 20% of global generics exports and accounted for 60% of the world’s vaccine production.

Indian companies straddle the entire value chain from API (active pharmaceutical ingredients) to drug discovery. “Rather than deter, COVID has given us an opportunity to fortify our position…,” he said, addressing the 8th convocation of NIPER Hyderabad, for which Industries and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao was the chief guest.

“We saw an increased collaboration among companies on product development, for licensing arrangements, to make sure we bring drugs to the market faster,” Mr. Reddy said, acknowledging the support of the Central and the State governments.

COVID has put the industry on a transformational journey. New jobs are being created every day and the pace of change is unlike anything that seen in the last 30-40 years.

Over the past 4-5 months, the industry has seen some paradigm shifts, he said, counting among them a significant decline in face-to-face interactions. Digital Health is the way to go. There also has been a strong push by governments towards localisation in the backdrop of supply chain risks, something bound to benefit existing pharma clusters such as Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.

Handing over certificates and medals to students, Mr. Rao said the pharmaceutical industry based out of Telangana has made significant contributions during the pandemic such as manufacture of life saving drugs, including Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine and Favipiravir.

The State has a vision to grow the industry from $50 billion to $100 billion and creating 400,000 new jobs this decade, the Minister said, listing projects under development and proposed, including Hyderabad Pharma City. The government has also earmarked 50 acres for establishment of new NIPER campus.

NIPER Hyderabad Director Shashi Bala Singh said the plan is to expand PG and Ph.D programmes to more new subjects like natural products, biotechnology, bio informatics. Certificate course in IPR and Regulatory Affairs is to be launched.

A total of 270 students were awarded degrees.