P Koteswara Rao, Director, Legend Drugs and Formulations Pvt. Ltd, has been unanimously elected president of the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Formulations (OPM), Andhra Pradesh. The other office-bearers unanimously elected at OPM's Annual General Meeting include G V V S Murthy (Sansil Drugs) and Raja Mouli (Peltek) as vice-presidents, V S Chakravarti (High Tech Pharma) as general secretary, K Tata Rao (Esteem Pharma) and Ghisulal Jain (Pharmaids) as joint secretaries and Bala Srinivas (Sumac Pharma) as treasurer. The new governing body would hold office for two years during 2002-04.

OPM is a representative body of the small-scale pharmaceutical formulations manufacturers with a membership of 150.

Assuming charge as the new president, Koteswara Rao said he would try to bring together all pharmaceutical formulations manufacturers of the state under the OPM umbrella. The Organisation, he said, would strive for good manufacturing practices (GMP) and produce quality medicines, dispelling the myth that quality was the prerogative of big companies, both INCs and MNCs.

OPM would act as a bridge between the government and the small-scale phamaceuticals formulations industry to solve issues like giving 15 per cent rate preference to local small-scale pharma units in the state, rate contracts as prevalent in other states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, restoration of status quo of price fixation norms as was existing prior to 1995 in DPCO, softening of the financial burden in the implementation of new Schedule M, how to face the challenges posed by WTO / post-2005 and bargaining for more sops for stepping up of exports.

Andhra Pradesh, particularly Hyderabad, is on the world map as far as bulk drugs are concerned. Same way, OPM would strive to bring name and fame to the state in the formulations section as well.

OPM would take up with the government the need for infrastructure developing, visualising the growth and export potential of drugs in the coming years. SSIs had a great potential in view of the ever-increasing domestic needs and OPM would encourage the members to fully exploit the domestic market and grab a lion's share of the sales turnover in the pharma industry, Koteswara Rao said.