Based on the announcement made by the Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ananth Kumar recently to come out with exclusive policy on bulk drug parks, medical device parks and formulation parks, the Gujarat government is awaiting the policy to address concerns over drug quality and over-dependence on importing for APIs.

It is learnt that commerce ministry and finance ministry are mulling over to come out with an exclusive policy on developing bulk drug parks, medical device parks and formulation parks in Gujarat going by the government’s mandate.

India imports about 80% of the APIs. China is a preferred source for APIs because of low price. It got APIs worth Rs.13,853 crore from China in FY16, or 65.3% of the Rs.21,217 crore total. This includes ingredients for essential antibiotics.

Industry has also raised concern over that as Indian companies are however losing out to China because of lack of support and incentives from the government to produce APIs.

Government of Maharashtra has also held discussions with drug manufacturers to explore potential of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in and around Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport (MIHAN) at Nagpur to be developed as pharma hub.

The project aims to exploit the central location of Nagpur and convert the present airport into a major cargo hub with integrated road and rail connectivity. It consists of two parts, namely an International airport to act as a cargo hub and a SEZ on the southern end of Nagpur.

The state government is also planning to meet industry bodies for further deliberations on the same. Gujarat has also identified land for medical devices park and constituted a high level committee to deliberate the process of finalizing the proceedings for setting it up. The committee is also responsible to discuss policy measures essential to galvanize and make these parks financially viable.

A medical device park is also very much relevant for Gujarat as the state has the largest number of 170 licensed medical device companies as against 240 in the entire country.

The park is stipulated to have common manufacturing facilities and will reduce capital expenditure for projects by offering low cost rentals and revenue support services, thus enabling these units to be competitive.