The Kerala Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (KPMA) has made a representation to the state government seeking support for the industry’s growth and urged it to declare the manufacturing sector as thrust area. The association wanted the government to announce revival packages for the closed units immediately.

After submitting a memorandum to the health minister and also to Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd (KMSCL), N Purushothaman, president of KPMA said the policies and practices of the Corporation with regard to procurement of drugs are against the small scale manufacturers of the state. Stating that the pharma industry in Kerala is in a deplorable state, he said a lot of companies in the state have stopped production due to the non-supporting practice being adopted by the government. He commented that people of Kerala consumes 10 per cent of the total medicines sold in the country.

According to the association, the pharmaceutical industry in Kerala must be declared as a thrust sector similar to that of IT and ayurveda sectors. Special packages should be introduced for the revival of the SSIs and a pharma cluster should exclusively be set up for allopathic industry. The government should also consider tax holidays, one-time grant, soft loan etc. for the pharma SMEs in Kerala.

To promote the state’s own products and allowing all the units participate in the tender process, the procedures must be simplified. Manufacturers who are not defaulters and with good track record and not been penalised, may be given automatic qualification to participate in tenders. Or else, registration may be granted to Kerala companies for five years on submission of documents under a simplified procedure. KPMA also demanded that a fixed percentage of the total requirement of medicines in the state should be reserved for the manufacturers of Kerala and they should be given 15 per cent price preference in the dealings.

Demanding government support, the pharma manufacturers said liquidated damages collected from defaulters by KMSCL is very high and a system should be brought to charge it as per store purchase manual or SPD manual. The members of KPMA should be exempted from furnishing performance bank guarantee. In case of default, government can easily recover damages by revenue recovery proceedings, Purushothaman said.