The decks have been cleared for the formation of Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) as the government of Andhra Pradesh has transferred the Rs 3 crore corpus stipulated by the Ministry of Commerce to the Council's account. With the initial formalities are now complete, the Ministry's notification to effect the commencement of the Council is expected in a day or two.

According to industry sources, as the exclusive export promotion council is being set up for the pharmaceutical industry, the pharmaceutical panel of the Basic Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics Export Promotion Council (Chemexcil) is likely to be abolished. Chemexcil at present has 2600 members in its pharma panel.

Pharmexcil, which is expected to begin operation by April first week, will have more than 2000 members initially. Majority of the members are currently members of Chemexcil. It is learnt that the major pharmaceutical industry Associations like IDMA, BDMA, IPA and OPPI have already intimated to its members that they need not renew the membership with Chemexcil, instead, should seek for Pharmexcil membership this year onwards.

However, Satish Wagh, chairman, Chemexcil, responding to the Associations' appeal to not to renew the membership with Chemexcil, has said that it is a 'misleading' statement. In a recent letter circulated among the member exporters of Panel 1 (Drugs, Pharmaceuticals and Fine Chemicals) of Chemexcil, Wagh has stated that "the idea of Pharmaxcil was mooted by power hungry persons and it was shocking to read a misleading statement in the IDMA Bulletin that they have approached the Ministry of Commerce to issue a notification for recognizing formation of Pharmexcil and thereby informed the members not renew their membership."

When contacted, Dinesh B Modi, the chairman designated of Pharmexcil, said that the Chemexcil chairman's statement through the letter is very unfortunate. He added that "in fact the Chemexcil chairman is creating confusion among the industry without realizing the facts."

Modi added that the Chemexcil should now realise that as the pharmaceutical industry has evolved as a large industry sector and the formation of Pharmexcil is a need-based proposal. Ironically, the Chemexcil is circulating such confusing letters among the Panel 1 members, who are the proponents of Pharmexcil, he quipped.

Satish Wagh while speaking to Pharmabiz on this said that as the Pharma Panel is an important portfolio for Chemexcil, it cannot afford to lose the Panel at this point of time. "In addition, there is no need of an exclusive export promotion council for pharma currently in the country as Chemexcil performs its best to the pharma exporter members," he said.

He added that since the Pharmexcil proponents are still not in a position to fulfill the mandatory requirements stipulated by the government like the corpus fund and others, it will remain a dream. Moreover, the role of an export promotion council among the large scale companies is not very important. At the same time, the SSIs who really look forward to the services of export promotion council would still prefer to become members of Chemexcil, he said.

However, he admitted that if the pharma panel of Chemexcil is abolished, it will have major impact on the existence of Chemexcil as the turnover of rest of the panels are not yet strong enough to claim for an EPC. The decision would also disqualify him to continue as chairman as he belongs to the pharma panel of Chemexcil.

Commenting on the current status of Pharmexcil formation D B Modi said that the corpus fund has been completely contributed by the AP government and the four major pharmaceutical industry associations, IDMA, BDMA, IPA and OPPI would contribute Rs 2.5 lakh each towards the working capital requirement. Since the Commerce Ministry notification is expected shortly, the EPC would start functioning in April.