India’s effort to save the world from the Coronavirus pandemic, first through Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and then the vaccine, is now being recognised all around the world. The political dispensation in countries like the United States and other Western countries might be reluctant to appreciate India’s efforts and leadership in combating the Coronavirus disease, but the technocrats in those countries are already hailing India as their saviour. The same was evident when Dr Peter Hotez praised India’s pharmaceutical industry and its efforts in dealing with the pandemic.
Dr Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston, during a recent webinar, said that India’s low-cost Covid vaccines “rescued the world” from the Coronavirus because the two mRNA vaccines, developed by American companies like Moderna and Pfizer, are not affordable to the majority of the global population.
“This is something very special and I see it myself because I’m on weekly teleconferences with our colleagues in India, you make a recommendation, and within days it’s done and not only done, but it’s done well and with incredible rigor and thought and creativity,” Dr Hotez said, stressing that he felt compelled to make this statement because “India’s huge efforts in combating global pandemic is a story that’s not really getting out in the world.”
During the pandemic, India emerged as the saviour of the world but the Western countries are reluctant to appreciate its contribution. In fact, the big pharmaceutical companies based in the United States have tried to defame the Indian pharmaceutical companies, their medicines, and Indian vaccines through big media companies like Bloomberg and the New York Times. The nexus of big pharma and big media has been exposed multiple times but their slander campaign against the Indian pharmaceutical companies continues because exports from India are eating up a large chunk of their market share.
India supplies 20-40 per cent (varies from country to country) total generic drug requirement. India is one of the largest pharmaceutical exporters with a total export of 12.1 billion dollars or 3.4 per cent to the global market and ranks 9th in the list of top global exporters of pharmaceutical products.
The pharmaceutical industry grew at double-digit in the last decade except for the last one or two years, when the growth slowed due to regulations put by the government and other disruptive reforms. However, since the onslaught of the Coronavirus pandemic in countries around the world, India has emerged as the pharmacy to the world.
The Indian pharmaceutical industry has a very robust fundamental infrastructure and has the opportunity to grow domestically and globally. As the Modi government’s focus has been on the availability of basic healthcare services to every citizen of the country, the health and pharmaceutical industry is all set to benefit. And with its success in combatting the pandemic, the countries around the world would give Indian companies more access to their pharmaceutical market.
Therefore, the pharmaceutical industry is set to grow at a double-digit pace in near future. The industry is also adopting digital technologies, where India is ahead of many countries, in modernising the existing infrastructure of the industry. Although the politico-media nexus of the western world is still reluctant to accept India’s leadership in pharmacy, the technocrats in these countries have already started recognising India’s prowess. Politicians in the West are always behind in catching up with emerging trends because they represent the establishment, but if Indian companies continue to innovate and expand at this pace, the western media will soon catch up with technocrats in recognising India’s prowess.