Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said that UP has immense potential in the pharmaceutical sector and is set to emerge a major pharmaceutical centre within the country in times to come as it provides adequate manpower, better road connectivity, adequate land bank and safe environment and sector-wise policies.

Yogi Adityanath, while addressing experts, stakeholders and entrepreneurs associated with the pharma sector at a National Seminar on Pharma Sector held at Asha College of Pharmacy & Research Centre, invited them to invest in the state.

He added that six G-20 meetings to be held in Kashi, three in Lucknow and one each in Agra and Gautam Buddh Nagar as well as the upcoming Global Investors Summit are big opportunities for the state to explore opportunities to boost the pharmaceutical industry in order to expand its presence in the global medicine market.

The chief minister said: “About 30 crore people depend on the health services of UP. The only two major drug markets between Lucknow and Patna are in Varanasi and Gorakhpur. Medicines are supplied to Patna from Varanasi and to Kathmandu from Gorakhpur. Therefore, a lot needs to be done in this field. Along with research work, we will also have to build new institutions.

He cited the ongoing construction of the Medical Device Park in Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority area over 350 acres of land and the work on Bulk Drug Park on 2000 acres in Lalitpur in this context.

Emphasising that India was very rich in terms of talent, which proved its mettle on the global stage whenever given a chance, the CM encouraged the attendees, including experts and different stakeholders from the pharmaceutical sector, to boost research in this huge field of medicine, ensure quality and get patents filed promptly so that UP’s presence in the global market increased and India was able to capture the global market. He added that India and UP also provide big markets to the world with its huge population.

The chief minister remarked: “Every fifth-sixth person in the world is from India and every fifth-sixth person in India is from UP. So, if India has great potential globally, UP is a state of immense possibilities within the country. India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been growing from strength to strength in this Amrit Kaal. As India’s march to progress continues, it has become the fifth largest economy of the world and is also heading G-20, the group of 20 most influential countries of the world that control 90 percent of innovations and patents and 85 percent of the world’s GDP.”

He further said that India which imported PPE kits and the medicines during the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic, not only started producing sufficient amount of these within two months, but also provided 220 crore doses of the vaccines developed by Indian scientists with support from the prime minister in record time and supplied the vaccines to 25 countries as a friendly gesture. CM said that Indian vaccines are the most effective vaccines against the virus.

The CM said that Indian talent has proved its mettle on the global stage whenever given a chance and therefore the Uttar Pradesh government was going to provide two crore tablets and smartphones to the youths of which 20 lakh has already been provided.

India has grown a lot in the last nine years under the leadership of PM Modi in the pharmaceutical sector and the position that India enjoys in the world, the same is enjoyed by UP within the country, he added.

Prominent among those who attended the seminar were the Chairman of the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), Montu Kumar M Patel, Cabinet Minister Anil Rajbhar, Minister of State Dayashankar Mishra Dayalu, MP BP Saroj, MLA Dr Neelkanth Tiwari, Dr Awadhesh Singh, Saurabh Srivastava, Sushil Singh, T Ram  and a large number of people associated with the pharma sector, including former drug controller Dr. JN Singh.