Pharma Parks to have drug regulatory & pollution control board offices !

Experts in the industry are of the opinion that the Union government should set up small offices of pollution control board and drug regulatory within the Pharma Parks to expedite the required clearances in a time bound manner.

Experts’ suggestion in this regard comes at a time when the government has recently made announcements to establish Pharma Parks at different locations in the country to incentivise and give a boost to domestic manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients, key starting materials and intermediates in the country. The pharma industry sees the need for government departments of drug regulatory and environment control to be also stationed within the Pharma Parks as it would bring about ease of coordination and transparency.

Further, the industry sees the need for a world class Pharma Park infrastructure with uninterrupted power and water supply, allowing the companies to produce to their full capacities without interruptions of any sort and also be able to go through successful global audits, noted the pharma chiefs at a webinar ‘CII PHARMASCOPE: A Step Towards Atamnirbhar Bharat – Made In India, Made for the World’.

The government’s clarion call for a self-reliant India to stay away from imports must be converted into a viable and profitable opportunity. The industry can optimise its techno-capability to manufacture not just paracetamol but other products as it did in the past. What China took 20 years to achieve, India can generate the momentum to become self-sufficient in APIs within the next 5 years, added Dr Dua.

Delving on the strategies to make India a global hub for API manufacturing, Dr S Eswara Reddy, joint drugs controller (India), CDSCO, said that any disruption of drug supply during this COVID-19 pandemic will adversely impact patient care. The reality is that India imports 70 percent APIs valued at Rs. 42,000 crore. Such excessive dependence on China is a concern. Moreover, China’s fluctuating and exorbitant pricing for APIs cannot be justified as it drained India’s foreign exchange and created  the balance of trade deficit.

Reference: Pharmabiz.com