PRASHANT Reddy Thikkavarapu studied law at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and Stanford Law School, California, as a J.N. Tata Scholar.
After a stint in the litigation teams at two Delhi-based law firms specialising in intellectual property law, he worked in academia and think tanks in New Delhi, Hyderabad and Singapore.
Over the last few years, he has been advising Ranbaxy Whistleblower Dinesh Thakur in his advocacy campaign for the reform of drug regulatory law in India. Prashant is the co-author of The Truth Pill: The Myth of Drug Regulation in India.
He is also the co-author of Create, Copy, Disrupt: India’s Intellectual Property Dilemmas. In an exclusive interview with The Leaflet, Prashant discusses India's pharmaceutical regulation crisis, highlighting corruption, lack of transparency, and compromised public health. He advocates for reforms, increased transparency and accountability to ensure quality drugs and patient safety.
Excerpts from the interview
Abhish K. Bose: Investigative journalist Catherine Eban's groundbreaking work has shed light on the alarming lapses in India's pharmaceutical industry, including contaminated chemotherapy drugs and compromised manufacturing practices. This raises critical concerns about patient safety, public health and the integrity of India's pharmaceutical sector.
What comprehensive regulatory reforms and enforcement mechanisms can be implemented to ensure the Indian pharmaceutical industry produces foolproof drugs, adhering to global standards of quality, safety and efficacy?
Prashant Reddy: The Indian drug regulatory system needs a complete overhaul, as I have outlined in my book with Dinesh Thakur, titled The Truth Pill: The Myth of Drug Regulation.
We need to consider centralising some aspects of drug regulation with a national regulator in order to ensure great uniformity with which the law is implemented across the country.
The current model of each state being responsible for regulating drug manufacturing within its territory is one of the reasons that there is little consistency in drug quality across the country. Equally important is the fact that there is far greater transparency in the enforcement of the law against the pharmaceutical industry.