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Industry eyes increased fund allocation for health in budget
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SME Times News Bureau | 30 Jan, 2022
India has been facing the Covid pandemic for two years now and the
pharma industry has witnessed ups and downs during this period while the
government has introduced some policies to strengthen India's
healthcare industry during the crisis.
But public health
expenditure, as a share of country's gross domestic product, is still
low and the industry stakeholders are hopeful of a change this year as
Covid has provided an opportunity to increase health spending in this
budget.
"The Indian pharmaceutical industry is of strategic
importance for the country, providing access to affordable quality
medicines across the world. The pharmaceutical industry is science-based
and knowledge-driven with scientific developments evolving at a rapid
pace. The budget should spur innovation and set the pace for taking the
pharmaceutical industry to the next level," Sudarshan Jain, Secretary
General, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, told IANS.
He said that
the primary thrust for the Indian pharmaceutical industry going forward
should be to move up the value chain by scaling up R&D and
innovation to meet the unmet needs of patients across the world.
"The
industry should evolve from 'Make in India' to 'Make and Discover in
India, for India and World' fulfilling the philosophy of Vasudhaiva
Kutumbakam," he added.
Jain underlined that as we have been into
the pandemic for the last two years, everyone has talked about
strengthening of health infrastructure. "But it can not be done with
spending just 1.2 per cent of the GDP, and instead the health spending
should go around 2.5 per cent of GDP this year."
The Covid-19
pandemic has remained a challenge for the healthcare system as lack of
adequate infrastructure and the shortage of basic medical equipment are
some points which emerged as important obstacles in providing heathcare
services in rural areas.
"The industry expects that preventive
medicines will get important places because of Covid pandemic in this
budget," said Dr Ravi Mallik of Radix Healthcare.
He said that
they are hopeful that fund allocation for health will increase in this
budget to strengthen the health infrastructure across the nation. In
developed nations, over 12 per cent of GDP is spent on health, he said,
adding that India's health share in GDP should increase to 2.5 per cent.
Dr
V.K. Monga, Chairman, DMA Nursing Home Forum, said that the Covid
pandemic has exposed the health infrastructure of the country.
"We have to increase the spending on health to at least five per cent of total GDP to fight such pandemics."
He
added that lower government spending on health gives advantage to the
private healthcare sector. People also prefer rivate hospitals as they
are well-equipped with modern facilities which government hospitals
lack. The government has to increase spending on health to make
healthcare more efficient and accessible for all, Dr Monga said.
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