As part of Global Health Strategies’ policy analysis initiatives, we have developed a white paper “India: The World’s Pharmacy Expands its Reach in Global Health”. This paper chronicles India’s long history of innovation  in the field of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, diagnostics and other indigenous medical products. The paper traces how these innovations have benefitted millions of global citizens by increasing access and affordability life-saving pharmaceuticals and vaccines.  Specifically, in the context of COVID-19, the paper touches upon India’s role in supplying the vaccines to countries, current COVID-19 R&D efforts in India and spotlights the opportunity to scale these innovations to the world. It ends by talking about the road ahead for India onfilling gaps in the two ends of the value chain, the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and branded, original drug molecules to further emphasize India’s role as the pharmacy of the world.

The paper was launched by Mr. Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary, Government of India on 30^th March 2021 during a webinar hosted by GHS in partnership with the Ananta Centre. Other speakers during the webinar included Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Chairperson, BIRAC as well as Mr. Hari Menon, Country Director, BMGF India.