BackIf I were FM | Glenn Saldanha, managing director and CEO, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals
If I were FM | Glenn Saldanha, managing director and CEO, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals
PremiumGlenn Saldanha, managing director and CEO, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. Ramesh Pathania / Mint
The government needs to make radical changes if it wants India to remain a major player in the global pharmaceutical industry. In addition to retaining our cost-competitiveness, the government should work to make India the hub for discovery research and development (R&D), which can bring the same change that software brought in the last decade. This has the potential to create thousands of new jobs while discovering new cures for various diseases.
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The government needs to treat discovery R&D separately and incentivize organizations that are making progress in this area, as investment for taking a single molecule to market runs into millions of dollars.
R&D awards for scientific innovation would also be a big boost. Clearly, the time is now. India has the potential to graduate from a cost-competitive destination to a land of innovation. Government intervention and support will play a huge role in making this aspiration a reality.
As told to C.H. Unnikrishnan
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