The Department of Pharmaceuticals is all set to boost research and development (R&D) of novel drugs with a new policy.
The government-appointed committee comprising officials from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Department of Science and Technology, such as Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Zydus Cadila chairman Pankaj Patel, will frame the policy.
The committee will come up with suggestions on schemes and incentives for pharmaceutical companies to conduct research and increasing coordination between research institutes in India for drug discovery.
The government issued the guidelines for production-linked incentive (PLI) and manufacturing cluster schemes for boosting domestic production of bulk drugs and medical devices, with an aim to reduce dependence on imports, especially for bulk drugs from China.
The scheme will provide incentives for pharmaceutical firms in India to scale up domestic production of 41 critical bulk drugs.
Under the Rs 6,940 crore bulk drug PLI scheme, incentives on 70-90 percent of domestic value addition will be given to 136 manufacturers for six years as a fixed percentage of domestic sales of the 41 products manufactured locally.