Budget 2024: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon and Biocon Biologics has been each year hoping the budget will come up with measures to incentivise investment into research and innovation by the pharmaceutical industry. It is a hope many in the pharma industry share and anxiously await an announcement each time the budget is presented.
Sharing her expectations from the budget, she says, for the pharmaceutical and biotech sector, “much like the production-linked incentive scheme, there is need for a research-linked incentive scheme.” Encouragement to research and innovation is crucial. It is the only hope for Indian medicines to move up the value chain with breakthrough research and for India to become an innovation hub for new drugs discovery and development. To her, it is also critical to build scale in the existing operations. “A research- linked incentive scheme with scope for tax deductions can be a key enabler for pharmaceutical companies to invest in research and innovation. The journey from lab to market is long and arduous and therefore tax incentives for investing in research and innovation can play a very important role,” she says.
It is not as if the government is oblivious to this need. She says, “the is aware of this and of the role that lower taxes or a weighted tax deduction kind of scheme can play. The industry has been constantly seeking this for sometime now and it is hoped that this ask from the Industry will be considered.”
Apart from encouraging research and innovation, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, also seeks a rethink on the GST (Good and Services Tax) in healthcare. “We have to rationalise GST on healthcare and do away with GST on life-saving medicines, especially cancer drugs.” This, to her, is needed all the more because these drugs typically tend to be expensive and are out of pocket expenses. “There is in fact, a need to rethink GST with respect to the healthcare sector,” she says.
