The Thanjavur based Consortium of Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Marketers Association (CIPMMA), an association of manufacturers and marketers of branded pharma products in southern Tamil Nadu will merge with Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industries (CIPI) soon.

The merger is likely to be held in the fourth annual state conference of CIPMMA which is slated for May 1 at Kandhsaras Mahal in Thanjavur, said A Karunai Kadal, the chairman of CIPMMA.

“The merger was supposed to be held in last year, but some manufacturers who are members of our organization, were not willing to join with CIPI as they wanted to go with PMA, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Tamil Nadu. After a prolonged discussion with the members and CIPI leaders, a concrete decision was taken to join with CIPI”, said the chairman.

While welcoming the decision of CIPMMA, T S Jaishankar, Chairman of CIPI, said the office-bearers of CIPMMA approached him two times with their decision for a merger, but he has to put it before the manufacturers’ association also, as CIPI is the confederation of manufacturers. He said CIPMMA members are very dynamic industry people, but most of them are traders. However his organization is interested to accept them as a member to CIPI and solve all their issues giving full support.

While briefing about the conference, the chairman o f the Consortium, A Karunai Kadal said the fourth annual convention of CIPMMA will be held at Thanjavur on May 1. The Consortium has a membership of 400 people, out of which 50 are manufacturers.

The state conference will be inaugurated by the chairman and presided over by S Nagaraju, state president of CIPMMA. Former Tamil Nadu state president of IMA, Dr N Mohandas will release the souvenir of the organization in the function. Managing director of Zenox Life Sciences, S A Manikantan will make the key note address. Tamil upcoming orator R Vijayan will deliver on ‘leadership quality in industry.

Felicitations of district office-bearers will be held in the afternoon session and from 4 pm there will be an interaction on ‘Management and Field work’ by CIPMMA Members. The general secretary of the Consortium, A Kannan will present the report.