Hyderabad: Telangana IT minister KT Rama Rao (KTR) said that the government needs to get its act together to support the growth of Lifesciences in the country. “There is no dearth of capital, talent or of home-grown entrepreneurs. We need a regulatory framework. Government- both central and state- has to get its act together, and give entrepreneurs a fillip to motivate them,” he said.
KTR was talking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He shared his thoughts on ‘Telangana Lifesciences Industry’s Vision For 2030’ on a panel with GV Prasad, MD and co-chairman of Dr. Reddy’s and Mohammed Athar, India partner of PwC.
KTR said that the state of Telangana was bringing in a world-class pharma city, growing vaccine area, IT and biology, pipeline talented human resources. “We work closely with both academia and industries, trying to bring in a synergy between what the world wants, what the market wants, and what the academia needs to be doing.”
When the govt of India undertook the bulk drugs park scheme they were looking to get the cheapest land, water and electricity scheme. “That is not how you should be looking at this industry, a race to the bottom is not an answer. We can’t be leapfrogging, we need to pole vault and nurture the existing ecosystem.”
The other participants who shared their thoughts at the panel discussion were Dr. Reddy’s Labs Co-Chairman and Managing Director GV Prasad and PwC India Partner Mohammad Athar.
KTR highlighted that Telangana is known as the ‘Vaccine Capital of the World’ and Life Sciences capital of the Country. He added that Hyderabad Pharma City spread across 19,000 acres will be the world’s largest pharma cluster.
“The government of Telangana has created a synergy between academia and industry which helps in coming up with solutions for various real-time issues,” he said.
He also stressed that innovations in life sciences sector are the need of the hour. He added that the sector is fast growing in the digital drug discovery space and there is a need for the IT and pharma sectors to come together and work.
Minister KTR stated that Hyderabad is home to various pharma globals including Novartis, which has set up its second-largest campus in Hyderabad.
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