Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson and managing director of Bengaluru-based Biocon Ltd, said covid-19 presents India with an opportunity to leverage its talent pool and become a part of the global innovation value chain, instead of just being a service provider.
In a podcast with Michael (Mike) Milken of the Milken Institute, a US-based think tank on philanthropy, Shaw said the pandemic could help India become the “innovator and not just the maker", considering its strengths in information technology, analytics and data science. The large number of engineering and medical graduates must innovate and not just offer services or contract manufacturing, she added.
“We’ve got to start creating value. And we’ve got to start leveraging our science, our technology, and really move up the innovation part." The Biocon chief, who tested positive for covid-19, said the pandemic also brought the spotlight on India and how it should look at the future, especially in terms of its presence in the pharmaceutical sector, which accounts for just 3% of the global market, despite being the biggest producer of generic medicines.
India is home to zoonotic viruses such as SARS and H1N1, but has done little to initiate research, but now that the pandemic led to all sorts of hardships, a sense of purpose should drive research to make affordable medication for global use, she added. “It’s about a billion patients, not just a billion dollars. The billions will come later, but it’s about serving those billion patients first, which to me is my sense of purpose. That’s why I’m very committed to compassionate capitalism."
Shaw also spoke about the pandemic and the post-lockdown spike in covid-19 cases, making India one of the worst affected countries with a caseload of over 2.8 million, and over 53,000 fatalities. She said the spread of the infection was successfully contained during the lockdown, especially in places like Bengaluru.
“But the moment the unlocking happened, I think people were under the impression that the virus has been chased away and we can now go back to normal life. And that was a big mistake," she said.
She said metros such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi, which were the worst affected, are expected to peak by the end of November. According to Shaw, better access to treatment was possible because patients with mild symptoms remained in home care to free up hospitals, which also helped to keep mortality rates under check. The recent sero-surveillance had indicated that people living in Mumbai slums and other parts of the country which have congested spaces seem to have developed herd immunity, Shaw added.
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