The six decades old multi-state cooperative society, Indian Medical Practitioners Cooperative Pharmacy and Stores Ltd (IMPCOPS) based in Chennai has revived its GMP status after a period of two years.
IMPCOPS, the only one ISM practitioners’ society in the co-operative sector in the country had lost its Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification in 2007 because of lack of infrastructural facilities and lack of continuous upgradation.
Recently, the director board of the society has decided to increase its sales to Rs 35 crore in the next few years from its present turnover of Rs 17 crore. Following the decision, the board has approached the Chennai-based ISM service provider, Centre for Traditional Medicine and Research (CTMR) to suggest measures for achieving the lost GMP status.
CTMR, after carrying out a detailed audit in the unit, recommended some proposals for reviving the earlier status. Along with this, IMPCOPS has prepared a project report to upgrade the lab and the manufacturing facilities to increase productivity and turnover. On submission of the report to the ISM directorate, inspections and testing of finished product samples were carried out by the concerned authorities in October this year, and finally the State Licensing Authority of ISM, Dr Sarojini Devi, has issued the long awaited Certificate to the society. The society has further appointed Vaidya. S Usman Ali and Dr T Thirunarayanan of CTMR as consultants to carry out the project.
The upgradation envisages environmental friendly green energy, fuel efficient systems, alternate power source to overcome frequent power cuts, R.O plant etc. The Lab will develop Standard Manufacturing Procedures for herbo-mineral preparations which would be a model for other industries in the sector.
The doctors-cum-manufacturers’ society has been manufacturing 700 formulations of Ayurveda,Siddha and Unani generic formulations and was the first ISM manufacturing facility in the country to mechanize its operational methods. The society claims that it has a live membership of 10,000 practitioners and possesses a good brand image for its products which are being produced without any deviation from the way the classical texts have illustrated and maintain good quality standards. However, the society has been encountering some kind of problems in supplying its products to various government institutions in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states due to non-renewal of GMP certification two years ago.
According to sources, the society was struggling hard to upgrade its facilities as it has a huge manpower cost, besides a host of expenses including the maintenance of old equipment, increasing energy cost and processing of water. The delay in upgrading the facilities was the reason for losing the GMP status, said the consultant Dr T Thirunarayanan.
Dr M K Thyagarajan, secretary of the society said that this initiative will help the company to fulfil institutional orders from government of India and other state governments and help increase its turnover. He said the workshop on GMP implementation conducted by CTMR last month was an eye opener to the different shop floor manufacturing supervisors and staffers who have assured to maintain the GMP status always.
Impcops proposes to submit the project report to the Department of Ayush for assistance under Centre for Excellence Scheme. The joint secretary of Department of Ayush, B Anand during his recent visit to the company assured to consider the proposal as it is an old surviving cooperative and a pioneer in manufacturing ISM drugs.