Govt should review spending of pharma cos and govt research institutes on RnD: M Rajendran

Chennai, June 28, 2021:

It is high time for the Government of India to advise the pharmaceutical companies in the country to spend a certain percentage of their revenue on innovation of new drugs. Likewise, the government should review how the public sector research institutes are spending the government funds sanctioned for research and developments, observes M Rajendran, former drugs controller in Tamil Nadu who provides legal assistance to pharma companies.

According to him, it is imperative for the pharmaceutical companies to spend on research, and develop new molecules, but the big and small players in India are not undertaking any research work. Whereas in western countries, all the pharmaceutical companies have their own research units and they invest a major portion of their income on R&D.

Analysing the present pandemic situation and availability of drugs and vaccines to prevent the viral spread, Rajendran said that India faces shortage in the number of indigenously manufactured vaccines and drugs to manage the Covid-19. At the same time, the western countries and China have developed their own vaccines and vaccinated most of their people.

Although India has manufactured the indigenous vaccine, Covaxin, through a collaborative effort by Bharat Biotech, National Institute of Virology and ICMR, the country is importing vaccines and the formulation of vaccine (manufacturing chemistry) from other countries. The need of the hour is that India needs more vaccine makers both in the public sector and in the private sector.

He said the lives of the Indian population depend on the government research institutes and on the private sector vaccine companies during the time of a pandemic. But none of these units brings out proper remedies for the people during a pandemic or in a public health issue. In such a crisis, the country has to depend on other countries for vaccines. Government is spending crores and crores of rupees on research areas, but the net result is zero. In these circumstances, the government should examine how the funds are utilised by the research institutes and what are their contributions for the development of vaccines and new drugs.

In the pharmaceutical companies, he said, pharma companies are making huge profits, but they are not spending anything on research. However, they claim tax exemption in the name of R&D. It is the duty of the government to check whether the pharma manufacturers undertake research projects, otherwise to initiate penal action against their disregard. “As far as I know the contribution of Indian pharma companies towards research on new molecules is zero. The pharma companies are not undertaking their responsibilities as expected from them,” he said.

Stressing again on public spending, he said, in the public sector, the government is spending a lot of its revenue for research institutes, but their contribution is also very little. When big countries like China, America, UK, Russiaetc are making vaccines and inoculating their people during this Covid period, why can’t India produce sufficient quantities of efficacious vaccines for the people, he asked.

According to the former drugs controller, institutions like Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), National Institute of Virology (NIV), National Institute of Biologicals (NIB), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), etc are functioning under the funding of the government of India. But during pandemic periods, India has to stretch its hands to foreign countries for medical aid. So, the government of India has to conduct an overall scrutiny of the activities of all the public sector research institutes in the country.Pharmabiz