Governor K. Rosaiah on Saturday underlined the need for looking at the pharmaceutical sector as a strategic and flagship industry.
Speaking at the golden jubilee National Pharmacy Week celebrations here, organised by the Indian Pharmaceutical Association, Tamil Nadu Branch, the Governor said that with low cost innovation, low capital requirements, cost effective running facilities, well established manufacturing processes and R and D infrastructure, the country was destined to emerge as an alternative source for affordable medicines. “We need to look at pharmaceutical sector as a strategic and flagship industry.”
Mr. Rosaiah said priority areas for pharmaceutical research and development should be identified. India's expertise in developing new and innovative processes for known molecules needed to be explored.
New drug development
Initiation of new drug development for diseases of relevance to Indian population was imperative. Another need was to evolve new regulatory measures to address the emerging concerns of the industry in its multifaceted dimension.
“Even though we have achieved a distinct place in globe in the pharmaceutical field, yet we have a lot to achieve.”
Pharmacists should be brought into the mainstream. They should be the core member in the team towards health care, he said.
Mr. Rosaiah presented the Best Pharmacist Award to S. Manivannan, Deputy Drug Controller, Central Drug Standard Control Organisation.
Higher level
Speaking on this year's theme, ‘Pharmacist: healthcare professional', Drug Controller, Karnataka, B.R. Jagashetty, said transparency, integrity and accountability would take pharmaceutical profession to a much higher level.
The secretary of the Tamil Nadu Indian Pharmaceutical Association Trust, M.M. Yousuf, said the organisation was committed to updating the knowledge of pharmacists.
It was active in advancing the knowledge of the public in the health care scenario.
Quality control laboratory
Plans are afoot to set up a hitech quality control laboratory to test the genuineness of drugs.
The association president, R. Narayanaswamy, and secretary, J. Jayaseelan, were among those who spoke.
