Shri Piyush Goyal addressed the 6th International Conference on Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Sector;

Calls upon Indian pharmaceutical and health care sector to adopt best quality practices and commitment to maintain high standards;

India’s proposal at the WTO for TRIPS waiver to allow more countries to get equitable access to medicines for Covid-19 is getting widespread support

Minister of Railways, Commerce & Industry, and Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution Shri Piyush Goyal today called upon the Indian pharmaceutical and health care sector to adopt best practices in terms of quality, facility and commitment to maintain high standards. Addressing the 6th International Conference on Pharmaceutical & Medical Devices Sector, he said that we all should collectively ensure that the nation will have good manufacturing practices. The entire health ecosystem should provide confidence to the world that India is the place you should look at for anything to do with health and is the one stop solution.

Shri Goyal said that Quality does not come at a price, rather quality reduces our price. He said that Regulatory & good manufacturing practices, systems and certifications, approvals, will always help us grow in scale and bring down the price. The Minister said that India has seen a golden period for healthcare in the last few years. He remarked that we should make the next decade, the decade of India when the entire world should be following Indian standards.

The Minister said that the world today needs CURE. CURE will come out of Cost-effective Universal solution through Research and Enterprise. He said “If we take it upon ourselves that India is going to CURE the world, I see no limitations in our ability to aspire to become a world dominant leader in the field of med-tech, medical devices, healthcare provider. CURE will come out of Cost-effective universal solution through research and enterprise.”

Shri Goyal said that India along with South Africa is at forefront, in a proposal introduced in October 2020, before the WTO in the TRIPS council, for a waiver during COVID-19 to allow more countries to get equitable access to medicines. He said that we now have 57 WTO members supporting us. Calling upon the pharmaceutical industry to show a big heart across the world & support the TRIPS waiver that India has proposed at WTO, he said that this will help the entire world come out of the pandemic much faster. The Minister said that the proposal has put the developed world under pressure, who are trying to protect the interests of some pharmaceutical companies.

The Minister said that India is well on the path to come out of the COVID pandemic and the Pharma industry is well on the path to grow out of the COVID pandemic. He said that the Pharmaceutical industry provided 3 V's: - Ventilators - Vaccines - V-shaped recovery, and these three V's are reflective of the strength of the industry. “As PM Narendra Modi says, let us convert this COVID pandemic into an opportunity, and nobody is better poised to do that than the Pharma industry.”, he added.

TRIPS waiver urged to expand equitable access to COVID 19 medicines; industry must adopt global quality and manufacturing standards. The minister urged the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector to adopt good manufacturing practices, regulatory systems and international certifications to ensure global confidence and cost efficiencies, and called for support of the TRIPS waiver at the WTO to enable wider, equitable access to COVID-19 medicines and technologies.