It is no exaggeration to say that Maharashtra leads the way for the pharmaceutical industry in the country. A good proportion of the top-notch pharmaceutical players like Sun, Cipla, Nicholas, Wockhardt, Glenmark, Lupin are operating from Mumbai, the capital city of the state. Besides, multinational firms and almost all major companies have their corporate offices in the city of Mumbai.
No wonder the city is often referred the commercial hub of the nation. It forms the nerve-centre for all major industrial sectors attracting close to 20 per cent of all investments into the country and generating almost a fifth of all jobs.
The state of Maharashtra, especially the city of Mumbai, has many contributing factors working on its favour. Other than the infrastructural benefits with good road connectivity and uninterrupted power supply which excel any of its counter-parts in the country, proximity to ports and an encouraging business culture make this financial centre one of the much-cherished destinations.
The state has also invested massively to upgrade its infrastructural metrics over the last few years closely working with the public-private partnerships. Maharashtra Infrastructure Development Support Act or MIDAS for private sector partnership in infrastructure is an example. The law seeks to create a single -window clearance for infrastructure projects.
Evidently, Maharashtra plays crucial in the pharmaceutical sector as almost 40 per cent of drugs and pharmaceuticals produced in the country are manufactured here. There are around 4,700 large, medium and small manufacturing units operating across the state, mostly concentrated on regions of Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Palghar, Nashik and Aurangabad, according to official estimates. Of this, nearly 3,500 are formulation facilities. It comes third in terms of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) production.
Despite the new Product Patent regime which has seemingly cast a shadow over the fortunes of the generic driven domestic pharmaceutical industry, the Mumbai pharma sector is reportedly growing at a pace of more than 10 per cent per annum.
Currently, almost 70 per cent of APIs and about fifty per cent of formulations produced in the country are exported from Mumbai. Cipla, Lupin, Wockhardt, Cipla, Nicholas Piramal, J B Chemicals are among the leading exporters from Mumbai. Exports too are reportedly growing at the rate of 15 per cent yearly, suggest reports.
The state has set standards in drug regulatory front as well. It is the first to adopt integrated approach to regulate food and drugs. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Maharashtra is headed by a Commissioner appointed from the Indian Civil Service. District offices are headed by Assistant Commissioners. There are around 159 Drug Inspectors, 265 Food Inspectors and 31 Food Supervisors in the state to carry out the field duties. FDA has an independent drugs control laboratory with a capacity to test 6000 samples per year.
Considered as of the very few states with the least incidence of spurious drug/counterfeits, FDA, Maharashtra has an intelligence branch to monitor and gather information on spurious and counterfeit drugs. The success story has led several drug regulators from in and around the country seeking to get trained by FDA officials to deal with spurious drugs.
Maharashtra State Chemists and Druggists Association (MSCDA), an affiliate of All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), Mumbai, is one of the oldest trade bodies in India. Of late, MSCDA has initiated efforts towards corporatising the retail drug trade. Green Cross Healthcare Pvt Ltd is seen as a bid to makeover the nearly 35,000-strong retail trader across the state in line with the other established organized retail chains like Medicine Shoppe, Subiksha etc.
In its a three-point strategy to boost biotech investments, the state government has announced the creation of a Maharashtra Biotech Board (MBB), Maharashtra Biotech Commission (MBC) and set Enshrined in the Maharashtra Biotech Policy include the tax sops for setting up biotech units in the state.
The presence of many centers of academic excellence like the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) and Pune University which has one of the best bioinformatics programmes in the country, gives Pune a natural advantage of forming a successful bio-cluster in the state. In addition, Pune is home to 2 major bio-process companies, Alfa Laval and Praj Industries. Other companies that have enhanced this bio-cluster are Serum Institute (vaccines), Mahyco, Syngenta (GM crops), Wockhardt (Bio-therapeutics) and Advanced Bio-chemicals (enzymes) add charm to this state's prowess.
Nonetheless, increasingly unionized labour force, rather stringent FDA norms and tax burden forced some drug manufactures to shift their bases to neighbouring states like Gujarat or to other tax-free destinations like Baddi, in Himachal Pradesh, Vizag in Hyderabad etc, of late. This hostile trend can be reversed if the government can take some positive steps remedying the existing lacunae, experts aver.