With a view to ensure maximum assistance to the SME sector, the Small and Medium Pharmaceutical Industry Centre (SMPIC) at the NIPER will help the SMEs to get their technical problems and issues solved with the help of the experts at the NIPER.

The SMPIC will gather the complaints and queries from the SMEs and forward the same to the concerned sections at the NIPER for an early solution and guidance, it was decided at a recent meeting of the consultative committee.

Besides, the SMPIC will soon launch the series of workshops aimed at training the SME people on crucial and much-needed technical and regulatory aspects. A one-day training programme, thus, will be held next month on documentation (preparation, control and maintenance of SOPs, SMF, BMRs and other relevant documents) to begin with. A sub-committee had already made recommendations to the SMPIC consultative committee on the training modules and programmes to be conducted by the centre, sources revealed.

Though there were suggestions for holding five-day training sessions on different topics, the industry members wanted only shorter training sessions. Likewise, the training sessions will be later held on various regulatory requirements, dossiers, market research studies, exports studies etc in the coming months.

The SMPIC will also facilitate impurity preparation/ and characterization work of pharma SMEs in the project mode by NIPER. A list of APIs in this purpose was prepared by the chairman of the consultative panel and has already handed over to the NIPER. The centre will also be coordinating with Pharmexcil officials for making a work plan on the input-out norms for APIs as stipulated by the Ministry of Commerce.

The consultative committee discussed the possibility of retaining bright students with NIPER to take up applied research, especially in areas like biotech. The SMPIC will be circulating the information about the facilities being offered to the SME sector through state drug control departments and the website of the NIPER, it was also decided.