The Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA) will soon open its 7th board, Telengana Chapter, in Hyderabad in the first week of August this year, the president of the association, SV Veeramani said.

The IDMA also plans to soon launch its 8th board in Karnataka. Presently it has six boards (chapters) functioning in Haryana, Uttarakhand & Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Tamil Nadu & Pondicherry.

“We are going to launch our 7th board, IDMA Telengana Chapter, in Hyderabad on 3rd August. Our eighth one will be in Bengaluru, but it requires some time. Simultaneously we are planning to inaugurate a branch in Seemandhra also,” Veeramani told Pharmabiz.

Veeramani, who took over as president of IDMA six months ago, is keen on expanding the association’s footprint in all the places where pharma manufacturing companies are working. While speaking to Pharmabiz, he said the association’s network will be expanded enormously in the coming years.   He said the association will take the problems of the bulk drugs industry in Telengana to the government for a concrete solution. Several of the API industries in Hyderabad have fallen sick due to various reasons. Approvals for their effluent treatment plants are not given on time. There is delay for getting environmental clearance, sometimes it takes more than two years. IDMA has given some suggestions to the government for relief measures to the industry.  If the government does not do something for the bulk drugs manufacturing units immediately, the situation will get worsened.

The bulk drugs units in Hyderabad currently contribute about 35% to Indian pharma exports. The export of Indian pharmaceuticals is growing every year, but last year the bulk drug industry in the country showed a downward growth. In 2012 its contribution for exports was 40 per cent. There are over 200 bulk drug units spread across Hyderabad and four neighboring districts. The IDMA’s new Telengana chapter will initiate steps for the growth of the industry there, Veeramani said.

Veeramani said though the bulk drugs units in Hyderabad are the members of BDMA, 45 of them have already joined IDMA. “We need only 25 members for forming a branch, now we have already 45 members from there. It will increase soon, and we will associate with the bulk drug manufacturers’ association there”, he further said and added that the problems and suggestions of the pharma industry covered in the ‘pharma vision -2020’ has been submitted to the union government.