The Government of Sudan has invited Indian cooperation in establishing an integrated pharmaceutical manufacturing complex in the country.

The US $ 100-million project aims at establishing separate production lines capable of producing tablets, capsules, syrup, powder and suspension, IV solutions, ointments, disposable syringes, veterinary drugs, herbal drugs, cosmetics, surgical items, etc. The country is also looking for external assistance in setting up pharmacy colleges and medical laboratory technical training institutions on a large scale.

According to the detailed project proposal, the country is looking for joint venture proposals from Indian companies where capacities can be built up for capsules, tablets and injectables manufacturing through equity as well as technical participation at the Teriaq Pharmaceutical Complex located at Khartoum North - Sudan.

The Sudanese Government has entrusted Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) with the task of proposing the right Indian partners for the job. The Sudan Government's proposal has come during a recent visit made by the Pharmexcil delegation, D B Mody, Chairman, Pharmexcil informed. According to him, Sudan is an emerging market with large potential for veterinary drug business. Interestingly, veterinary production lines are going to be the biggest ones among all other manufacturing facilities proposed by Sudan.

The project proposal calls for the establishment of four production lines in the veterinary section. While the powder manufacturing plant is to have a 3 million kg / year capacity, production lines for tablets, injectables and syrups in the veterinary sector would be of 2 million tablets / year, 7 million vials / year and 1 million litres / year respectively. The herbal production line is envisaged to have a capacity to handle 14 million kg of herb / seeds per year.

Sudan has plans to build up its pharmaceutical industry by assisting them in the development of vertical and horizontal capacities of factories, technologies and utilization of idle production capacities. The idea is to gain self sufficiency in at least 75% of the drugs that are needed for the country.

The National Drug Policy formulated by the Federal Ministry of Health of that country consists of a five-year master plan to enable ministry to engage foreign support for the implementation of the proposed projects.

Sudan has already entered into an agreement with a Malaysian company for the setting up of IV fluid production lines. This facility is to have the capacity to produce 8 million doses / year.