The Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industries (CIPI), an association of about 4,000 small-scale pharmaceutical manufacturers in the country, has appealed to the Union government to treat the formulation industry differently from the bulk drug industry in matters of pollution control and excise benefits. The Confederation will soon submit a memorandum in this regard to the Union ministries of chemicals and health.

CIPI chairman TS Jaishankar said that the formulation units are currently facing a lot of problems due to the clubbing of this sector with the bulk drug industry. A major issue is relating to pollution. The government treats both the formulators and the bulk drug units as one industry sector. Bulk drug units do cause pollution but the operations of formulation units do not add much to pollution. But, the pollution control boards treat both of these groups of units alike and take actions. This is creating a lot of problems to the formulation units.

Demanding to accord a special status to the formulation units for the survival of the small players in the industry, Jaishankar said it is high time the government gives a separate identity to the formulation units in the country and hands out some special concession like excise duty reduction to resuscitate these dying units. "The government should differentiate between bulk drugs and formulations units and understand its problems separately", he added.

Seeking to remove the wrong impression that all pharma companies are making huge profits, Jaishankar said the fact is that most of the formulation units in the country are in deep trouble due to uneven operating environment created by various government policies. The problems faced by formulation units are quite different from that of bulk units and other big companies, he said.