CHENNAI: Some of the challenges the Indian pharmaceutical industry, which is on its way to a boom, will have to address are harmonisation of legislation and implementing global good manufacturing practices, Drug Controller-General of India M. Venkateswarulu said on Saturday.

He was delivering a lecture on `Global trends in Pharma-opportunities and challenges,' at the 23rd national conference of the Indian Pharmacy Graduates Association here.

The country's pharmaceutical industry was growing rapidly, almost on a par with the IT industry. While the revenues from the pharmaceutical and allied industries (ancillary equipment and materials and primary and secondary packaging) had also burgeoned, it was necessary to address some lacunae to capitalise on the growth.

Infrastructure

The industry should build brand equity and create infrastructure and state-of-the-art facilities for stepping up manufacture. It should also keep pace with the increasing benchmarks for quality and integrate the IT industry with the pharmaceutical sector, besides promoting interaction between the academia and regulators and tackling problems in registration for generic products in the United States.

The curriculum of pharmaceutical colleges and universities should be constantly updated.

Herbal preparations

Dr. Venkateswarulu also called for focussing on yet another expanding field: Indian systems of medicine. Standardising herbal preparations and neutraceuticals must be done as soon as possible.

The two-day conference, hosted by the Tamil Nadu chapter of the IPGA, is aimed at highlighting certain concerns of the industry that tries to handle the pressures of globalisation and intellectual property rights, M. Dhilip Kumar, secretary, IPGA 2006, said.

Sessions are devoted to subjects including patenting systems in India and abroad, new drug development and clinical trials.

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