The brewing tug of war between the small pharma companies and the big brothers in the industry has reached the central government with several associations representing the small pharma companies urging Union Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss to initiate strict action against big industries who alleged to have sponsored the recent fake drug exposure by a national news channel.

The wordy duel between the small pharma companies and the large companies in the country has, of late, been growing on several issues, the latest being the recent exposure of fake drugs in the northern part of the country by a news channel. Several SSI associations have termed the entire exercise as the handiwork of the large players in the industry to spoil the image of the SSI units. They have written letters to Union Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, urging him to take strict action against the news channel and the sponsors of this episode.

"Big players at the cost of SSIs aim the propaganda that about 30 per cent of drugs are counterfeit/spurious/fake in the country for achieving their business targets", MP Small Scale Drug Manufacturers Association (MPSDMA) president Dr RA Sharma said in his letter to Dr Ramadoss and added, "Strict action against the news channel" 'Aajtak' and the sponsors of this episode should be initiated for their anti national act."

Besides the MPSDMA, the Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industries (CIPI), an association of around 5000 small pharmaceutical units, has also written to the Union Health Minister on the same lines.

In a recent exposure against counterfeit medicines in the country, a news channel had exposed the modus operandi of the fake drug manufacturing and its distribution in the country. According to the news channel report, the fake drug industry in the country is valued at Rs 17,000 crore of the total drug production of around Rs 50,000 crore. The channel had reported that small units are engaged in the manufacture of spurious drugs.

Enraged over the report, the small manufacturers alleged that the entire report was stage-managed by the large pharma companies to denigrate the thousands of small pharma units in the country which are already under tremendous pressure due to several adverse government policies.

This is not the first time that the pharma fraternity was seen fuming fire on each other. The industry has seen such polarisation earlier also on issues like exclusion of SSI from government business by incorporating irrational eligibility criteria viz. annual turnover, WHO GMP certification and product wise manufacturing and marketing experience, exorbitant enhancement of licence fees, enforcement of revised schedule 'M' in Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, imposition of central excise duty on maximum retail price, etc.

More recently, there has been intense lobbying for and against the central government's move to withdraw excise exemption to the contract manufacturers in the tax holiday zones.