Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister D. V. Sadananda Gowda Launches OPPI Annual Summit, Healthcare Accelerated

 Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri D. V. Sadananda Gowda, today launched the 9th edition of  Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI)’s Annual Summit - Healthcare Accelerated with the theme India’s Healthcare Transformational Journey, through the virtual platform.

The two-day summit began with an address by OPPI President Sharad Tyagi on ‘Reimagining India’s Healthcare in the next decade’, followed by an address by OPPI Director General, K G Ananthakrishanan on ‘Refreshing Research’. 

The first day of the Summit witnessed key note speeches by Ms S Aparna, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals; and Dr Shamika Ravi, former member of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council and Research Director at the Brookings Institution, US.

Launching the Summit, Shri Sadananda Gowda commended the efforts  of global and Indian companies, research institutes, government regulators and hospitals for supporting the COVID19 vaccine development and its clinical trials. “India is often referred to as 'the pharmacy of the world.' This has been proven completely true during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic when India continued to produce and export critical life-saving medicines to the rest of the world. The contribution of Indian pharmaceutical sector has been reinforced during this pandemic year when the companies, global and Indian, stepped in and stepped up their efforts in service of the country. I have no doubt to believe that these collaborations and the maturity demonstrated by the collaborations are going to define the Indian pharmaceutical sector in the years ahead.”

He further added, “India has attracted large scale inflow of foreign direct investment to the pharmaceutical sector and the Medical Devices sector. As a matter of record, pharmaceuticals export from India was over 20 billion dollars in the year 2019-20 and is expected to cross 25 billion dollars by the end of the current financial year. This was at a time when the domestic market has crossed 22 billion dollars last year. It is indeed poised for much higher growth.”

The summit conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr Y.K. Hamied, founder of Cipla Ltd and the Special Recognition Award to Dr V G Somani, Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI).

In a special session on COVID19 Vaccine Updates, Jaak Peeters, Johnson & Johnson Special Envoy for COVID-19 Vaccine and Narender Mantena, Head of Global Strategy & CEO, Specialty Generic Injectables & Synthetic Biology, Biological E Ltd shared the global efforts on vaccine development with Sarthak Ranade, Managing Director of Janssen India.

On December 18, Hon’ble Minister of State, Ministry of Shipping, Chemicals & Fertilizers Shri Mansukh Mandaviya will present the Acess Awards - for Outstanding contribution in Child Health to Dr. Aparna Hegde, Founder, Chairperson and Managing Trustee of ARMMAN; and for Outstanding contribution in Healthcare Access to Harmala Gupta, Independent Non-Profit Organization Management Professional, Founder & President, CanSupport.

OPPI annual scientitst awards will be presented to three emiment scientists by the Director General of CSIR and Secretary, DSIR, Dr Shekhar Mande. This year’s awardees are Dr Debabrata Dash, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi as the OPPI Scientist of the Year; Dr Rituparna Sinha Roy, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata as the OPPI Woman Scientist of the Year; and Dr Arun Kumar Shukla, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur as the OPPI Young Scientist of the Year.

The Summit will host five panel discussions on ‘India’s Healthcare Tranformation journey’ and the role of Finance, Technology, Trust and Quality in Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals sectors with Indian and global experts from governments, regulators, the industry, NGOs and the academia.

The two-day session will end tomorrow with a conversation with Mrs. Neerja Birla, founder & chairperson, Aditya Birla Education Trust on the siginificance of mental health during the current COVID19 crisis.

Commenting on the Summit Sharad Tyagi said, “OPPI is glad to bring such high voltage disucssions on India’s Healthcare transformation during these testing times. Healthcare and pharmaceutical industry have worked hand in hand with the government and the regulators in the last 10 months to ensure that the COVID virus is controlled in our country with all our might. The summit will pave way to take these collaborations and partnerships to the next level.”

K.G. Ananthakrishnan, said, “Today more than ever, the world is looking for research and innovations to combat dieseases. As a society, we need to recognise and reward high risk innovations to strengthen the industry and thereby benefit the patients”.

About OPPI

The Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) established in 1965, represents the research-based pharmaceutical companies in India. OPPI remains committed to supporting the nation’s healthcare objectives and collaborating with all stakeholders to find sustainable solutions. OPPI believes the need for innovation must be balanced with the necessity for more accessible medicines, within a robust IP environment.