Indian pharma industry’s social initiatives touched 15 millions lives: IPA report

New Delhi: Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) member companies, through their CSR and social activities, reached more than 15 million Indians across demographics and geographies during the FY 2018-19 as per IPA Samhita report titled, “Beyond Business: Contributions to Social Initiatives.” The report is researched and compiled by IPA in collaboration with Samhita Social Ventures. It seeks to understand the role played and impact created by IPA member companies in nation-building through CSR.

The report was released by Ms. S Aparna, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals and Mr. Satish Reddy, President, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance. While releasing the report, Ms. S  Aparna appreciated the role of IPA member companies and conveyed that companies need to build further on fulfilling the needs of society. Business purpose woven around the society is fundamental going forward. The report launch was followed by a panel discussion in conversation with Dr Nachiket Mor and Industry leaders to emphasize the industry-wide collaboration in key identified areas and the way forward

Mr Satish Reddy, President, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) said, “The Indian Pharmaceutical industry has always highlighted its commitment towards quality, accessibility, and innovation. Our desire to make an impact in society at large has encouraged us towards philanthropy over the past few years.  We broadly categorized our CSR approach to fit each cause; responsive for immediate needs, philanthropic for specific initiatives, and strategic to align business expertise to CSR initiatives.”

Mr Dilip Shanghvi, Managing Director – Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd added, “IPA member companies undertook comprehensive efforts in identifying social causes to support and accordingly, made relevant interventions. This enabled the member companies to utilize their allocated CSR funds in an efficient and effective manner, delivering high impact results by reaching out to the most underserved communities.”

Mr Nilesh Gupta, Managing Director – Lupin Ltd added, “Our deep understanding in healthcare helps us understand the challenges faced by the country. Especially, in rural areas where communities struggle to receive basic access to healthcare. Many of the IPA member companies work in such rural, hard-to-reach areas. This has allowed us to extend the reach to these communities and provide them with healthcare facilities and improve the quality of life of all individuals.”

Mr Pankaj Patel, Chairman – Zydus Cadila mentioned, “We hope our collaborative efforts and individual efforts will help further strengthen and co-create a robust healthcare eco-system in the country that reaches the last mile.”

Mr Sudarshan Jain, Secretary-General, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) added, “The contributions of IPA member companies have not been limited to Research and Development (R&D), and innovation but have expanded to nation-building through serving underprivileged populations through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The IPA member companies are committed to not only ensuring  availability, accessibility, and affordability of quality medicines to all segments of the population, but also striving towards contributing to philanthropic causes of healthcare, education, and environment.”

As per IPA, its member companies utilized allocated CSR funds in an efficient and effective manner where the impact of their interventions has reached the most under-served communities. Maharashtra and Telangana have the largest presence with 14 companies in each state conducting CSR interventions, followed by Gujarat where 13 companies are implementing their CSR projects/programs. Many companies are working in rural, hard-to-reach areas in these states, where communities struggle to access social and health services. Initiatives undertaken ranged from e healthcare, education, rural livelihood support, community and rural infrastructure development, women empowerment, care for the environment, sanitation to sports promotion. CSR activities also included healthcare interventions such as primary healthcare, eye-care, communicable diseases, non-communicable disease, and mental health.