Dr Rajiv Modi, CMD, Cadila Pharmaceuticals | St. Petersburg International Economic Forum

Thank you for this wonderful opportunity. One of the good things of speaking to so many people who have given this experience is that it critically comes out right. So this is a historic license between our two great nations, a long partnership for years and decades. India has benefited tremendously from the technology and resources shared over decades. But on the side of pharmaceuticals, I think we are very, very happy to say that Indian pharmaceutical companies have been a very solid support for enabling access of medicine to the Russian population by providing affordable medicines over the years. As the era of change in Russia under President Putin and the proclamation of the white paper on indigenization of manufacture of medicine started, I think there is a huge opportunity between, as Satish my colleague has mentioned, of using the advantage and the great experiences that Indian companies have gathered over two decades to bring that experience of providing and manufacturing global quality products industrially for the people of Russia. So the low-hanging fruit really is global scale systematic partnership, encouraging partnerships at the governmental level for facilitating willing companies to partner with Russian partners who can contend near these medicines, which I think more than 70-80 percent of the medicines are imported to Russia. So I think on the generic level it provides access to medicines, helps alleviate pain, and of course Satish gave an example of decreasing the burden cost on the government. I think that's one very low-hanging fruit. Of course that's a result of a lot of research and that would be beneficial. We at Cadila have this wonderful challenging experience, being privately held until now, of investing in innovations. So among the few companies in India, if not the only, we have brought in a new drug in cardiovascular diseases, Polypill; a new drug combating tuberculosis; a new innovation of a large molecule for combating non-small cell lung cancer; and very recently over the last 6-12 months, nanoparticle recombinant vaccines for pandemic and influenza vaccines. So we have over the last 15-20 years learned how to get innovation done very affordably, and the unique thing that we have accomplished also is that these products, which are first time in the world, are priced at a product at a price point which is lower than the equivalent of generic. So I think this is a wonderful experience. People are learning about famous scientists, people who have very famous academic institutions who have actually given to the scientific world—India around the world—tremendous technology. Somehow these partnerships have scattered. So one of my points would be that if through some machinery like we have in India—CSIR, central science and technology department—if through some machinery this valuable knowledge which exists in the Russian scientists can be then shared, I think we can gain from the experience of Indian companies to see if these novel islands of excellence and knowledge can then be assimilated, co-development exercises could be done to bring new molecules to the market. But I think more importantly, I would stress the point that since 70-80 percent of the consumption in Russia is generic products, and India is a leader of providing high quality affordable generic products, there should be some state level encouragement, at a government level encouragement, by which pharmaceutical, which is the strength of our countries and the gesture which needs medicines, strategic partnerships are nurtured at the highest level. And I'm aware that President Putin is putting a lot of effort on it. Anything from our government as well, I think at the highest level if we bring this on, we have a lot to summarize. We at Cadila are very seriously looking at making huge investments here because we believe very strongly in this market, and we are in the process of finding the right locations and partners. Thank you.