Gujarat state board of the Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association has started a free Subcontracting Exchange Programme (SEP) for the benefit of small and medium pharma companies in getting contract manufacturing business. The Programme, which is partly funded by the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), is the first of this kind in the country.

SEP is a data exchange programme for pharma companies who are looking for outsourcing manufacturing services on loan license basis. With this specially designed database, the Association can provide information about suitable manufacturers according to the requirement of the applicant company. Once the requirement, placed by the licensor company, is fed in the system the software will automatically identify the contract manufacturer according to the product, capacity and the facility specification (cGMP, WHO, US FDA etc) mentioned in the application.

The state IDMA database currently has 250 small and medium scale companies dedicated to contract manufacturing. Though it includes only the units in Gujarat state, the Association sources said that the units from outside Gujarat could also register their name with the SEP.

The NSIC funding to the project is to the tune of Rs 2.40 lakh. According to Gujarat state Board of IDMA, this programme has been started for the common benefit of the small and medium pharma units, who have upgraded their facilities as per the cGMP and other quality requirements by now with additional investments. "Since contract manufacturing is a promising business option now for small and medium pharma manufacturers, this is a kind of service facilitation to our members to augment their growth," said sources from the Association.