The small and medium pharma sector has expressed disappointment over the proposal to set up a venture capital fund of Rs.2000 crore to promote research and development, instead of creating a separate fund for the SMEs as they were pushing hard.

Peeved at the continuous neglect especially by the Commerce Ministry which has proposed the venture fund, the SMEs are planning to take the help of the Pharmaceutical Department to safeguard the interests of the small scale pharma companies through some pro-active measures.

The industry sources said the SMEs made several requests to create Rs.1000-crore exclusive venture capital fund for them on the lines of Technology Upgradation Fund scheme with interest subsidy, but the Government was now opting for the fund for R & D which might be fully grabbed by the multinational companies.

“The multinationals have several options to fund their research and development like foreign borrowings. The government says that SME is the priority sector but no concrete steps are taken to support the SMEs. They cannot use this R & Fund as they are not into large scale research activities,” an industry leader said.

“We have been taking up several issues with the Commerce Ministry but not many supportive measures came from it. We had in detail submitted the problems and suggested measures to help the SME sector. We will now seek the help of the DoP also, while trying to push more aggressively the case of pharma SMEs with other ministries,” said Nipun Jain, SME panel chairman of the Pharmexcil, while responding to the issue.

Even the 20-member high-level consultative group on pharma exports, which took the decision for the R&D fund, had only one representative from the SME sector. Even the SME Panel chief of the Pharmexcil or Pharmexcil’s vice-chairman who represents virtually the SME sector was not called for the meeting.

S V Veeramani, the chairman of Fourrts (India) Laboratories Pvt Limited, who was the lone representative of the SME reported argued for a separate fund for the SMEs and also demanded steps to promote the Indian pharmacopoeia in the international market so that it can be accepted worldwide along with the British and United States pharmacopoeias, it is learnt.