Even as the recent expired drugs scam has put Tamil Nadu on high alert, the pharma manufacturers in the state have come up with a plan for finding a lasting solution to the present crisis in which they have proposed the establishment of a Common Incinerator for destroying the expired drugs. The manufacturers have decided to approach the state government with the project soon.

The project envisages the establishment of a common incinerator for destroying the expired drugs returned by stockists and retailers, and a common effluent treatment plant (ETP) either in Alathur, the pharma industrial estate where all the major companies have own plants, or in any other suitable area within the periphery of the city.

The office-bearers of prominent pharma associations based in Chennai like IDMA, PMA and IPA, after day-long deliberations to end the crisis, had already held the first official discussion with the director of Drugs Control Department on the issue. In Chennai, very few companies have their own incinerators, and most of the SMEs are depending the furnace of others to burn their returned trash.

S V Veeramani, vice-president of IDMA and the MD of Fourrts Laboratories, J Jayaseelan, secretary of IPA Chennai Branch and the MD of Novel Therapeutics and B Sethuraman, president of Tamil Nadu Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association and MD of Abhilash Pharma were among the leading figures attended the meeting with the government on the issue.

After the meeting, the people representing the Chennai pharma industry told Pharmabiz that their associations’ joint meeting would again be held in Chennai on April 22 to evolve new plans and decide on how to represent the government including the chief minister. For the common ETP plant and the Common Incinerator, besides technical hands, so many infrastructural facilities have to be set up before establishing the units. According to Sethuraman, the government’s financial assistance is a must for the projects as the two establishments need common land, money and manpower.

During the manufacturing process of drugs, varied effluents and contaminants are produced. The Effluent Treatment Plants are used in the removal of high amount of organics, debris, dirt, grit, pollution, toxic, non- toxic materials, polymers etc. from drugs and other medicated stuff. In Chennai, there are a lot of contract manufacturers who are engaging companies having manufacturing units for the formulation purpose. In these cases, naturally the expired drugs do not come back to the hands of the real manufacturing companies, which in turn will go to the marketing companies. A common incinerator can destroy all the returned and waste products.

Meanwhile, chief minister M Karunanidhi has said that his government would not hesitate to seek a CBI probe if the crime had inter-state connections. When contacted, some industry people said that some north Indian rackets based in Delhi and suburban places are working behind some of the expired and spurious drugs being circulated in the markets of southern states.