Telangana only region in world with 200-plus FDA approved pharma sites: KT Rama Rao

Stating that Telangana contributed 40 percent of India’s Pharma production and was home to more than 1,000 lifesciences companies and growing, Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said the State was the only region in the world to have more than 200 FDA approved sites for pharmaceutical manufacturing which produce both innovator and generic medicines.

Speaking at the inaugural function of the BioAsia 2023 event, he said the State’s capability would be further strengthened with the launch of Hyderabad Pharma City, which will be the world’s largest and sustainable integrated pharma park.

The Pharma City has the potential to attract $8 billion in investments and several firms have already expressed their intent to set up their facilities over there.

“While we are continuing to build on our strengths in small molecules, we have also started to make a giant leap towards advanced therapeutic modalities,” the Minister said.

Hyderabad has been leading biological production in the country with its key players like Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Biological E, Bharat Biotech, Shantha Biotech, Aurobindo, Hetero, Gland Pharma and Virchow Biotech. Telangana is also establishing Biopharma the Hub (B-hub), which is a first-of-its-kind Growth-Phase Center and



Biopharma Scale-up Manufacturing facility in India.

Investments were also being made in the cell and gene therapy space and an Institute of Curative Medicine would be established in Hyderabad with an aim to provide affordable development and commercialisation of the new age curative therapies, particularly cell and gene therapy, for diseases pertinent to India.

Hyderabad was also home to the largest number of Indian and multinational pharmaceutical research service organisations offering medicinal chemistry, discovery biology, pre-clinical, clinical, drug development and clinical trial product manufacturing. It was safe to say that a significant percentage of current and future NCE approvals originate in Hyderabad, Rama Rao said.

Hyderabad was emerging as a preferred location for lifesciences focused Global capability centers (GCCs). BMS and Sanofi announced new facilities in Hyderabad to join the illustrious list that includes Novartis, Bayer, Medtronic, Thermofisher, and Schrodinger. These GCCs support R&D, analytics, innovation and engineering teams globally. Over the next five years. The State will position Hyderabad as a highend GCC destination for the world’s leading lifesciences companies, he added.