Message from Alan Gemmell O.B.E (Her Majesty's Trade Commissioner, South Asia and British Deputy High Commissioner - Western India)
I’m delighted to welcome you to the second UK Bio-Pharmaceutical mission to India. UK Government colleagues in the UK and in India are proud to be supporting innovative UK companies with a strong offer in drug discovery and development; process manufacturing; and, vaccines. The UK is home to a world class life-science base and one of the best locations in the world for the discovery and development of vaccines. Today 5,870 life sciences companies generate nearly £74 billion in annual turnover. The UK takes pride in this unique ecosystem with a strong R&D base and established platforms for technology development alongside its National Health Service.
The strength and complementarity of the UK-India healthcare partnership can perhaps best be seen in our NHS where over 25% of prescribed generic drugs prescribed have an Indian origin. Under Prime Minister Modi, India has become the pharmacy of the world. We’ve also seen the UK-India healthcare partnership provide a critical role in the global response to COVID-19.
Thank you for joining our virtual mission. We look forward to the collaboration, innovation, and new partnerships it will lead to.
Message from Harjinder Kang (Director Healthcare, Life Sciences & Bio Economy, Department for International Trade)
On behalf of the UK Department For International Trade I am very pleased to welcome you to our first virtual India bio-pharma trade mission which concentrates on the key themes of drug discovery and delivery, vaccines and advanced manufacturing technology (including AI) in bio- pharma.
I would like to express my gratitude to all of you for participating. I would like to pay particular thanks to our expert panel of speakers including Dr. Chris Molloy from the Medicines Discovery Catapult, Dr. William van’t Hoff from the National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network, Prof. Justin Stebbing from Imperial College, Dr. Taslimarif Saiyed from C-CAMP in Bangalore, and Mr. Jayesh Ranjan, the Principal Secretary of the Industries and Commerce department, Government of Telengana in Hyderabad.
We have some excellent companies participating in this two-day event which will play an important role in further strengthening the links between the UK and India. I very much hope that partnerships initiated this week can grow into important collaborations which can be mutually profitable and offer significant benefits to the health sector in both countries, and around the world.
I wish you all a successful and productive event and hope that you will remain in close contact with the partners you meet here and with the DIT team in London and in India
