The US-India partnership is critical for addressing global challenges, particularly in public health and pharmaceutical innovation, a top Indian-American White House official has said.
Dr Rahul Gupta, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), said it is important for the safety security and health of the world that the two nations maintain and accelerate their partnership in all areas.
“Because when we have a United States and an India that are looking forward together to solve the world's problems, it is the only way we're going to be able to solve the world's problem because this is really where East meets the West,” said Dr Gupta, who is one of the highest-ranking Indian Americans in the outgoing Biden Administration.
"This relationship allows the two countries, but also the continents in the world, to come closer together, to understand each other, and at the end of the world solve the most pressing world's problems together as one unit so we can inspire the next generation of countries coming up to work democratically in a way that will help this planet,” he told PTI in an interview.
In his capacity as the Drug Czar of the Biden Administration, Dr Gupta played an important role in successfully fighting the opioid crisis in the US.
He played a key role in the US arriving at an agreement with China on this issue, wherein Beijing agreed to take action against those responsible for illegally pushing synthetic drugs into the US.
Dr Gupta said with India, the US wants to create some of the most forward-leading drug policy frameworks ever established between our two countries. That cooperation has three pillars, he noted.
The first pillar is counter-narcotics cooperation.
Public health is the second priority to ensure that the advancements made in both countries are supported and shared with one another.
“We have more engagement from academia to academia, treatment providers to treatment providers, and the workforce. For example, the United States has a very shortage of public health workforce in terms of psychiatrists, medical doctors, nurses, counsellors and others,” he said.
The third pillar is developing a supply chain for pharmaceutical productions of the future, he said.
“So going at these 21st-century challenges together as two countries, two democracies that lead the world so many other things, also advancing technology and drug discovery at the same time while having integrity with integrity in the global supply chain,” he added.
Gupta said the time has come for the next phase of cooperation between India and the US.
“For instance, using artificial intelligence to conduct drug discovery, not only will it save time, and make new products much cheaper, but we'll have more access to the global world. This is an important part, both for the United States and for India,” he said.
“India has been able to distribute its vaccine across so many countries when it comes to COVID. It's going to be important that we follow that model when it comes to medications like not only addiction, but high blood pressure, diabetes, and so many others," he said.
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