In order to make Chhattisgarh a future hub of pharmaceutical production, the state Food and Drugs Control Administration (FDA) has submitted a comprehensive pharma master plan to the state health department, taking cue from the neighbouring states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Chhattisgarh, the sale pocket of all medicine manufacturing companies, has no manufacturing unit at all, said S Babu, the director of FDA.

In the project submitted to the government, the director has recommended for a Special Economic Zone like those in Buddy in Himachal Pradesh and in Uttarakhand. Babu said Chhattisgarh has become a medicine consumer state now because of increased consumption by the tribal people due to the awareness about medication created among them. In cities and in remote villages, all the hospitals and medical shops stock all kinds of medicines including essential drugs, hence there is no shortage of drugs in Chhattisgarh, the FDA director who is the controlling and licensing authority of drugs claimed.

Talking to Pharmabiz, he said soon the department will take measures to attract companies into the state with the help of pharmacy colleges, chemists and druggists associations and the leading pharmaceutical industry bodies. Since the state is getting good revenue from power and steel, the government gives more attention to those sectors. If pharma companies launch their units in Chhattisgarh, they don’t have to face any power problem. Babu’s project includes tax exemption for ten years and several other incentives.

“This state is a sale pocket of all companies from other states and countries, but we have to create employment opportunities for the pharma graduates in the state. A lot of graduates and diploma holders are coming out of colleges every year. There is very poor chance for them to get a good job. So all the graduates are going to other states including Himachal Pradesh seeking jobs and work on very poor wages. If companies are started here, the students passing out from the colleges will get jobs here,” he told Pharmabiz.

When asked about the analytical lab, he said the department has got a very strong laboratory with state of the art machinery and the results of sample tests are released within two months time. About 1200 samples are tested in the lab per year. He said CDTL, Kolkata is sending samples to Raipur Lab for tests and analysis. Government has now allotted fund for establishing a regional drug testing laboratory in Bilaspur, which will start function in this financial year. Recently the department seized huge quantities of spurious drugs and filed four cases.

Regarding enforcement of drugs & cosmetics act, the FDA director said even though there is shortage of drug inspectors, inspection, sample collection and monitoring of drug procurement are going on smoothly. The percentage of not of standard quality (NSQ) drugs is low compared to the neighbouring states, but several cases have been filed recently.

When the state was part of Madhya Pradesh, it was too difficult for the regulatory authority to check the malpractices and inspections were conducted very rarely in all the shops. Now inspections are conducted regularly and over 100 samples are collected in one month, he told Pharmabiz.