The Consortium of Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Marketers Association (CIPMMA), based in Tamil Nadu, has in its fourth state conference at Thanjavur passed a resolution demanding amendment of Drugs & Cosmetics Act to enable the regulatory agencies to issue separate licences for special category of pharma marketers.

According to the association, currently the drug control agencies provide licences for manufacturers, wholesalers/distributors and retailers. The marketers are entirely different from distributors as they market only their products. The manufacture and the chain of supply of their products are under their own control, and they do not market other companies’ products. The marketers reach into an agreement with manufacturing companies and such manufacturers do not sell the products to any other stockists or wholesalers. In short, the marketers sell their own branded products, they maintained.

In an interaction with Pharmabiz, the office bearers said that they demand separate licences for the emerging category of pharma marketers because they are neither distributors nor retailers. They are both manufacturers and traders combined into one for branded products. In Tamil Nadu alone the association has got more than 400 such members, out of which 56 are manufacturers. Other members are engaging contract manufactures for the production of the exclusive products. Soon the activities of the association will be pervaded to other states also, said S Nagaraju, president of CIPMMA.

A Karunai Kadal, the chairman of the marketers association, said most of the CIPMMA members are from the southern districts of the state, and with Madurai as centre, they want to strengthen the association for the sake of the marketers and manufacturers of this area. “About 20 districts including   Madurai, Thanjavur and Trichy belong to our area. Though CIPMMA has members from all over Tamil Nadu, majority of them are SMEs from the state’s southern part which we want to develop as a special zone for pharmaceuticals. As far as Chennai is concerned, it is a big zone covering big companies and the government is giving attention only to them. We also want government attention for which we are uniting and raising our voice”, he responded to one query.

The association is preparing a memorandum to be submitted to the union health ministry and to the chemical and fertilizers ministry and they intend to demand  an exclusive excise free pharma park in Madurai. Further, they will ask for a separate drug testing laboratory to be set up either in Madurai or in Thanjavur. “Since healthcare service is a social service, we want to provide quality medicines at affordable prices to the public. So we want all the required infrastructure facilities. For each and every thing we have to go to Chennai. The manufacturers are the worst affected. So the government should establish a manufacturing licence processing office in Madurai also”, said Nagaraju, the president of CIPMMA.

A Kannan, secretary of the association presented the resolution in the conference. He said CIPMMA is providing job opportunities to 30,000 people directly and indirectly. Later he handed over the charge of secretary to Arun Prasad. No election was held for the post.

The conference was inaugurated by A Karunai Kadal and the key note address was made by Dr R Elangovan, Professor of Neuro Surgery, Thanjavur Medical College. The association’s souvenir was released by Dr N Mohandas, former state president of IMA Tamil Nadu branch.