Mr. Saransh Chaudhary, President, Global Critical Care, Venus Remedies Ltd and CEO, Venus Medicine Research Centre:

“The Union Budget 2025 has brought several positive developments for the pharma industry, including full exemption from basic customs duty on 36 lifesaving drugs and concessional duty of 5% on 6 more. The government’s decision to fully exempt specified drugs under Patient Assistance Programmes (PAPs) and add 37 new medicines along with 13 additional PAPs will significantly improve access to critical medicines and reduce treatment costs for patients in need.

The announcement to set up Day Care Cancer Centres in all district hospitals over the next three years—starting with 200 in 2025-26—is a commendable step in strengthening cancer care infrastructure. This initiative will provide patients with first-hand assistance from healthcare professionals while easing the burden on tertiary hospitals and ensuring timely treatment closer to home.

While these are welcome steps, we had hoped for a stronger push towards pharmaceutical R&D. Increasing allocation beyond the current 1% of GDP, raising the weighted tax deduction for R&D expenditure from 100% to 200%, and swiftly rolling out the Research Linked Incentive scheme remain critical to fostering drug innovation. We urge the government to consider these priorities to further bolster research in India’s pharma industry and healthcare ecosystem.”