KTR says Hyderabad had already established itself as a leading pharma destination in the try and Hyworld

IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao on Tuesday said the coronavirus pandemic has provided the pharma and life sciences sector in the State with an opportunity to fortify its position as a global force in the world of pharmaceuticals.

“The pharma industry based out of Hyderabad have already proved its mettle during the pandemic by manufacturing and supplying life-saving drugs and equipment to the world in the fight against the virus,” the Minister said, sharing his views on the importance and future direction of pharma and life sciences sector in Hyderabad during a webinar organised by the World Economic Forum.

Addressing the gathering, the Minister said Hyderabad had already established itself as a leading pharma destination in the try and Hyworld with projects like Genome Valley which was the largest medical devices park in the country and Pharma City, the largest pharma cluster in the world. “It is a matter of pride that more than 30 per cent of the world’s vaccines are produced in Hyderabad. Companies like Bharat Biotech, which already has operations in Hyderabad, are frontrunners in manufacturing vaccines in the fight against coronavirus. 

The opportunities available for growth of pharma and life sciences industries in the State are likely to increase further in



future,” he said.

Rama Rao observed that just like the IT industry created lakhs of jobs in India two decades ago, pharma and life sciences sector was seeing a similar opportunity to grow now. He expressed the hope that there would be many opportunities in the field of pharma and life sciences not only during the pandemic, but also in the post COVID-19 era. “The Telangana government will prepare all the necessary plans to seize the future opportunities in this field,” he said.

The Minister said the State government was partnering with the World Economic Forum on various programmes and the current crisis provided more opportunities for collaborations. He pointed out that Apollo Hospitals had partnered with the WEF to launch a programme like ‘Medicines from the Sky’ to supply medicines using drones in case of emergencies.

Pointing out that the world’s top five IT companies had set up their second largest offices in Hyderabad, he said: “Similarly, Hyderabad has all the resources to become home for pharma giants. Novartis has already set up its offices in Hyderabad,” he said, and emphasised the need to seize the growing opportunities not just in the field of pharmaceuticals, but also in new areas such as digital drug discovery.