More than 25 per cent of the pharmaceutical units in Tamil Nadu will have to soon close down as the Drug Control Administration of Tamil Nadu has started issuing orders to the non-GMP complied pharma companies in the state to stop manufacturing and distribution of products with immediate effect.

Closure notices are now issued to about 100 pharmaceutical companies in the state who failed to respond to the show cause notice issued earlier. About 200 to 250 companies had requested for more time to comply with the rules. The department will soon re-inspect these companies and closure orders would be served for non-compliant units, informed N Selvaraju, Drugs Controller (in-charge), Drugs Control Administration. He said that around 60 per cent of the companies, out of a total number of 600 odd active pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in the state are yet to comply with the rules.

Earlier, the administration had convened a meeting with the pharma companies in the state to discuss the issues on Revised Schedule M implementation. The officials also had warned the companies to comply with the rules at the earliest.

"We have provided maximum time we can offer for the industry to comply the standards, and it is impossible to allow more time here after. We infer that the pharma industry in the state will not be affected with this action as many of the companies which failed to respond and demands more time are sick units," said Selvaraju. The drug inspectors and assistant directors of the DCA will soon start stringent inspections to close non-compliant units.

Meanwhile, the posts of around 30 drug inspectors, four assistant directors and eight senior inspectors are remaining vacant in the DCA, apart from the vacant position of the Drugs Controller. Commenting on the administrative delay due to lack of staff in the department, Selvaraju said the government was taking steps to fill the posts and the staff shortage would not affect functioning of the department.