The much awaited establishment of the separate export promotion council for drugs and pharmaceuticals, Pharmexcil, is likely to take final shape by the end of this year. The constitution of the Council has been expedited as the state governments of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have reached on a consensus on the financial support and also on the location of head office and branch offices.

According to industry sources, the state governments and the industry associations have mutually agreed upon the fund raising for the infrastructure and initial operation expenditures. The head office of the Council would be set up in Mumbai as the metro is currently the hub of pharmaceutical exports. However, the registered office of Pharmexcil would be located at Hyderabad as per the consensus made between the state governments of AP and Maharashtra. The Council will have another branch office in Ahmedabad as the pharma exports from Gujarat is significantly high at present.

The formation of the export promotion council, which was proposed by the pharma industry associations like Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA), Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA) along with Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) and Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), had been cleared by the Union Ministry of Commerce last year on the condition that the industry should raise the initial fund for the establishment.

The government of Maharashtra has allotted a token amount of Rs five lakh to Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA) for setting up an export promotion council for pharmaceuticals (Pharmexcil) in the state. The government has also assured all necessary help to IDMA for the project.

Interestingly, Maharashtra is the second state after Andhra Pradesh to set apart an amount for the formation of Pharmexcil. The government of AP had earlier allotted Rs three crore and 10 acres of land at the insistence of Hyderabad based Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA) towards the formation of Pharmexcil.

However, the standoff between the two associations and the state governments on the location of Pharmexcil had caused further delay in the formation of the council. The ministry sources informed that they were unable to proceed with "Pharmexcil files" as they are yet to get a written assurance from the associations concerned about the availability of the corpus amount and the location of the proposed council. The Ministry had asked the associations to suggest a location and also forward a corpus amount of Rs three crore in order to have the council in place.

N H Israni, president, IDMA confirmed that since the final decision on the location and the fund raising has been formulated, it has been already conveyed to the Commerce Ministry. He said that the initial corpus, apart from the state government contribution, would also be funded from the membership collection of the Council and by way contributions from the industry.