The meet assumes significance given the near-neglect of the knowledge-drivenpharmaceutical industry in Sinha's budget for 2000-2001 and the consequentdrop in prices of almost all major pharma stock on the bourses.

The meeting will broadly address areas like research and development (R&D),measures to enhance export competitiveness and other growth tonics thatcould restore the feel-good factor in India Pharma Inc. Industry expertsexpect the framework emerging out of this meet to be converted into concretemeasures. The budget session of Parliament is expected to commence by April17. Dr Reddy's Laboratories chairman Dr Anji Reddy is likely to speak on R&Dwhile Ranbaxy Labs CEO DS Brar will also address the meet, among otherindustry bigwigs.

Indications are that the chairman of the National Pharmaceutical PricingAuthority (NPPA) Arun Kumar and around 10 secretaries and joint secretariesof the relevant ministries will also be present at the meeting.

The high-level interaction between industry and government is beingsupported by three industry bodies -the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (thefledgling combine of eight heavy-weight domestic pharma companies), theOrganisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) and the Indian DrugManufacturers Association (IDMA). Lupin Laboratories chairman D B Gupta had,in recent interview with Star News, said that government needs to helpindustry build on its R&D strengths besides enhancing its competitiveness ininternational markets.

The pharmaceutical industry had been pinning its hopes on innovativeapproaches to research and development (R&D) financing-including venturecapital funding in the budget.

Industry has also been keen to see the linkage of R&D investments and pricebenefits under the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) in line with therecommendations of the Mashelkar Committee report. The 14-member MashelkarCommittee has, among things, suggested new and innovative fiscal andnon-fiscal measures to boost pharma R&D. Industry experts say thatinnovative R&D financing-including venture capital funding-was necessarygiven the high risk and high investment required in pharmaceutical researchprojects. Internationally, taking a drug from discovery stage to the marketcan involve an investment of around $ 250-500 million (over 12 years) whilein India this could cost upto Rs 200 crore.