Dr Kalam urges to produce pharma specialists for growing India

Gandhinagar, Sep 6 (UNI) Former President A P J Abdul Kalam today called upon the Indian pharma community to set a target of producing branded as well as generics pharmaceutical drugs worth 55 billion dollars as the country has a core competence of producing cost effective and quality pharma products.

After inaugurating Klenzaids Institute of Biopharmaceutics at Umargam town of Valsad district here, Dr Kalam said the global production of pharmaceuticals, branded and generics, put together was worth US 550 billion dollars.

He said with the arrival of such institute in this tribal dominated area, it would provide quality human resources for pharma companies involved in drug development and manufacturing. Such an institute could make an important contribution to the enrichment of pharmaceutical education at post-graduate and PhD level, which was vital for the growing Indian pharmaceutical industry.

Narrating the bright future for pharma specialists, former Indian President said there were about 500 Diplomas and about an equal number of Degree Institutions in pharmacy with an annual intake of about 30,000. In each course, about 12 post-graduate degree specialisations were available with an intake of around 3,000 students.

It was projected that by the year 2020 the demand for pharma specialists would be 1.7 million in the country, he added.

UNI