KTR signs deal to make Telangana TB free

The Telangana government on Friday entered into a MoU with Johnson & Johnson to make the state tuberculosis free. Johnson & Johnson will play an active role in the project by assisting the state government in achieving the goal.

The MoU was arrived at during Information Technology Minister K T Rama Rao’s meeting with executives of Johnson & Johnson, Paul Stoffel, chairman of Pharmaceuticals Division, Melinda Richter, Head of J-Labs and Jonathan Collard, VP, Government Affairs and Policy, Asia Pacific.  

Stoffel Paul was very enthusiastic about Hyderabad Pharma City and will be visiting Hyderabad in 2017. Melinda Richter assured the Telangana delegation that J&J would explore the possibility of setting up of J-Labs unit in Hyderabad. 

K T Rama Rao, who is on a week-long trip to the US to attract investments in Telangana, met heads of leading global pharma companies on his second day of his tour.KTR also met Sanat Chattopadhyay, executive VP and president, Merck Manufacturing Division, who mentioned the firm's intent for a social partnership with the Telangana government on arresting infant diarrhoea.

Merck also expressed interest in setting up manufacturing base in



Telangana in collaboration with local partners.It also evinced interest in setting up "vaccine centre of excellence" in Hyderabad which will also be used for imparting skills, providing training based on the specific requirement of the companies.

Nanette Cocero, president for Emerging Markets for Innovative Health Business, Pfizer and Jeffery T Hamilton, senior director, Pfizer, during their discussions with the Minister explained about Pfizer's ECHO project in the area of breast cancer screening.

KTR elaborated on the steps Telangana government initiated to boost the pharma sector in Hyderabad and invited Pfizer to associate with Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad (RICH).

Another MoU was signed with IV2 Alliance, a non-profit corporation and one that works in tandem with US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to promote collaboration within the scientific, research and provider communities to achieve advances in the field of healthcare and wellness.

USFDA in a written communication stated that Pharma City near Hyderabad can be the first of the international clusters it seeks to bring together to link scientific and medical advances from across the globe for better healthcare.