The lack of human resources to scale up operations is hindering the government from providing better healthcare in rural areas, said Anil Kumar, Health Secretary, Government of Karnataka.
At a roundtable on ‘Headwinds and Tailwinds Round Pharmaceutical Innovation and The Future Of The Industry’ hosted by Synergia Foundation, Kumar said that it would take eight to nine years for more human resources to become available in rural areas.
Currently, the state provides only 30% of healthcare services, while the other 70% is taken care of by private players due to weak regulations, he added.
On the exponential growth of the pharma industry, Professor Chas Bountra, Pro Vice Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Oxford, said: “The emphasis of pharma research will soon change from large expensive research hubs towards more virtual and lot smaller, nimble research bases spread around the world.”
Dr Satish Reddy, chairman of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, said that India should aspire to create the first trillion-dollar pharma company.