Centre not extending required support to Pharma City: KTR

Hyderabad: IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao on Monday said Telangana was launching the world’s largest pharma cluster – Pharma City in Hyderabad – to strengthen the life sciences sector but rued that the Central government was not extending the required support for the project. “Hyderabad has emerged as the life sciences capital […]

Hyderabad: IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao on Monday said Telangana was launching the world’s largest pharma cluster – Pharma City in Hyderabad – to strengthen the life sciences sector but rued that the Central government was not extending the required support for the project.

“Hyderabad has emerged as the life sciences capital and the Telangana government is taking all measures required to further boost the prospects in this sector in the State,” he said, addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos during a session under the theme ‘Telangana: R&D and Innovation Hotspot of Asia.’

“If the life sciences sector in the country has to withstand the stiff competition at international level, the Central government has to come up with some revolutionary reforms,” Rama Rao stressed, pointing out that post Covid, the significance of life sciences sector had increased manifolds. Unfortunately, the Central government policies do not extend the required support to improve the prospects in this sector, he said.

To promote and strengthen the Research and Development in the sector, the policies should facilitate easy flow of foreign investments into the sector, the Minister said, adding that investments in this sector were risk-oriented that required the Central government to take up more initiatives.

“Focus should be on innovation to facilitate further expansion of the life sciences sector. At present, Hyderabad is far ahead of other cities in the country in terms of life sciences sector operations and expansion. Already, Novartis has set up its second largest unit in Hyderabad,” the Minister said.

“In the wake of life sciences sector heading towards digital drug discovery, there is a need for IT and Pharma sectors to work in coordination. Apart from medicines manufacturing, efforts should be made on coming up with new molecules,” Rama Rao said.

The Telangana government, he said, was extending all support to new innovations in the life sciences sector and was already working with various companies in Hyderabad in this direction, he added.

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