The association of manufacturers of Indian system of medicines in Tamil Nadu is conducting a seminar on 'GMP Compliance and Quality Control' in Chennai on April 25. The seminar comes prior to the submission of the detailed project report (DPR) to the Department of Ayush for the proposed Ayush Cluster, the Traditional Ayush Cluster of Tamil Nadu (TACT).

TACT, the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) formed by the Tamil Nadu Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani Drugs Manufacturers Association (TASUDMA), will submit the DPR to the Ayush Department by the end of this month.

The seminar will shed light on the procedures for setting up a common quality control facility that is supposed to be established in the upcoming cluster. It will also focus on how to achieve higher growth in the ISM sector with the establishment of Tact cluster. Several papers will also be presented in the seminar. Experts in quality control departments of various manufacturing units are expected to participate in the seminar.

Dr Vijay A Mehta, secretary of Tact said the seminar will be beneficial to manufacturers as well as professionals in the ISM industry. "The main objective is to understand about the cluster schemes and implementation of common quality control facility. The manufacturers are supposed to have a common documentation procedure, and it is hoped that the seminar would help it. This is the first step in the process of setting up the common lab facility," he said.

It is learnt that the common facilities for the TACT will be established in Sriperumpudur, the industrial corridor on the Chennai-Bangalore national high way. The site was bought for the purpose by Tasudma for Rs 2 crore and it is learnt that the project will commence operation within one year of sanction. To comply with the norms of Department of Ayush for setting up the cluster, Tasudma has enrolled about 20 ISM companies with GMP facilities as the founder shareholders of the Cluster.

The seminar will be held at Hotel Palm Grove from 9 am onwards.