The Indian Drugs Manufacturers' Association (IDMA) has urged the government to support Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) industry by providing subsidies and soft loans to the individual API companies in India.

The association is of view that the API industry is suffering due to lack of funds as the cost of power, land etc is very high in India when compared to China. So to reduce dependency on China, the government should provide subsidy on power and land cost to the individual API companies.

S V Veerramani, president of IDMA says, “The government is try to bring cluster and common facilities to help API industry but what about the individual API companies? If the government provides subsidies to the API companies, they can start producing more and the dependency on China can be reduced. The companies are also facing problems in getting environmental clearance. For every new product, it takes 2 years time to get approval.”

Likewise, the Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA) is also of view that the government should support the existing API units which are either sick or closed down or are on the verge of closing down due to competition in the industry. The association had recommended to the government to provide working capital at internationally competitive rates for exports, capital grants for setting up R&D facilities, soft loans for setting up import substitution products, grant support for upgradation of manufacturing and testing facilities to meet WHO GMP and US FDA standards and partial reimbursement of facility registration and DMF filing fees paid to various regulatory authorities.

The Indian API manufacturers lost the competitive edge to manufacture APIs and fermentation technology products to countries like China, primarily due to costly power, inadequate infrastructure, government restrictions clamping down on the volume of APIs that can be produced in the existing plants, delays in new drug approvals, lack of financial support and incentives from the governments

Though the Department of Pharmaceuticals has drafted schemes and policies to support and boost API manufacturing in India, based on the recommendation by the Katoch committee, most of them are stuck in the pipeline seeking approval from the finance ministry.