The six decade old Indian Medical Practitioners' Cooperative Pharmacy and Stores Ltd (IMPCOPS) at Chennai, is all set to regain its old glory and face the market challenges.

After recording continuous losses for the last five years, the doctors' run drug manufacturing firm has recorded profits in the last fiscal. IMPCOPS is now planning to diversify into medicinal plant cultivation and hospitals.

IMPCOPS, the only drug maker under the co-operative sector in Asia manufacturing drugs of the three traditional Indian systems of medicines under one roof, is also looking at the export market in a big way. The company has recently initiated modernizing its manufacturing lines and streamlining the marketing set up as part of turnaround strategies, informed Dr.Kumaradas. MLA, president and Dr.VR Seshadri, vice-president.

Talking to Pharmabiz.com, Dr Das said that Rs.10 crore IMPCOPS has registered a profit of Rs.6.4 lakhs in the 2002-03 fiscal year, reversing the trend of losses for the last five years following the state government decision to discontinue the drug purchase.

"Our accumulated losses were to the tune of over Rs.10 crore during the period, but the turnaround strategies are working well and yielding results. Being a co-operative firm with over 14,000 members (only a registered doctor can become the member of IMPCOPS) with priority for meeting their demands than eyeing the open market, our recovery and growth was slow, but steady. Now we look forward to enter the fray of open competition. We are in the process of modernizing our manufacturing and marketing set up," said Dr.Shesadri.

He said the company, which was slow in modernization and stuck to traditional practices in manufacturing, now has a WHO-GMP certified manufacturing unit at its headquarters at Thiruvanmiyur in Chennai and a second manufacturing facility at Tadepalle in Andhra Pradesh. It was planning to further modernize its plants with modern automated equipments, besides setting up a modern packaging and bottling unit to match the looks of products available in the open market.

IMPCOPS was focusing on the existing product range made strictly in accordance to the traditional texts, rather than experimenting with value added drugs and nutraceuticals. Dr.Shesadri claimed the company was offering the products at a low margin and way below the prices of drugs available in the market. As a result, IMPCOPS products had excellent demand in the market. IMPCOPS makes 232 items of Siddha medicine, 306 types of Ayurveda and 157 products under the Unani system.

According to Dr.Kumaradas, as part of the company's 60th anniversary celebrations in 2004, IMPCOPS was planning to start an integrated Siddha, Unani and Ayurveda 200 bed hospital within its premises, and would soon forward a proposal to the government. At present, it runs a clinic where around 100 outpatients consult the resident doctors, and another 20 patients undergo various oil massage treatments as part of the treatment. Another idea was to enter into medicinal plant cultivation and was hopeful the Tamil Nadu government would allocate 1000 or more acres of land for the purpose. He said the firm was also exploring the possibilities of large-scale export of medicines.

Dr.Shesadri said another idea, as part of the 60th year celebrations was to diversify into medical education, starting with an undergraduate three-year course in pharmacy.

IMPCOPS was started in 1944 by the leading ISM practitioners in Tamil Nadu to make available quality and cheap drugs for their use. Now it has a dozen odd sales depots at various parts in south India. IMPCOPS has a net worth of over Rs.40 crore, which includes the 9.2-acre corporate office complex in the heart of the city.