The Tamil Nadu state board of the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (TN IDMA) has elected J Jayaseelan, managing director of Nuray Chemicals Pvt Ltd, a conglomerate of diverse range of pharmaceutical manufacturing and marketing companies in Chennai, as its chairman.

He is currently the secretary of IPA Tamil Nadu besides holding positions such as chairman of public relations of IDMA and secretary of the industrial division of IPA. He was one of the key members who were instrumental in organising the 64th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress (IPC) in Chennai in 2012.

As the chairman of the state board, Jayaseelan wants to take forward the proposal mooted by TN IDMA last year with regard to setting up of a pharma park somewhere in Chennai for the expansion of pharmaceutical industry in the state. Similarly, he plans to mobilise support of all pharma industry organisations to request the state government to frame a separate pharma policy for Tamil Nadu on the lines of the pharma policy of Gujarat government.

The state IDMA will provide all support to the pharma SMEs in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry by way of continuous training programmes. It also wants to promote cluster concepts among the industry leaders, he said while replying to a query.

Jayaseelan started his career as an entrepreneur in the year 2000 and gradually raised a group of companies worth Rs. 500 crore in a period of ten years. He has wide industry contacts across India, USA and in 40 semi regulated markets.

He has promoted one formulation, one CRO and one API facility in Chennai which are all US FDA approved facilities. All these facilities were transferred to PAR Pharma inc, which is the fifth largest generic pharma company in USA.