The Telangana state government is pulling up all the stops to strengthen its bulk drug manufacturing tag and wants to maintain its pioneer status as India’s leading bulk drug manufacturing hub. As part of this the state government has conducted a meeting with all the members of the bulk drug manufacturing units in the state and sought their suggestions and ideas for developing a strong pharmaceutical base in the state.

During a meeting which was held last week, IT, industries and municipal administration and urban development minister, government of Telangana K T Ramarao, invited suggestions from the member companies of bulk drug manufacturing association with regard to shifting of polluting pharmaceutical units to pharma clusters and the newly constructed pharma city on the outskirts of Hyderabad beyond outer ring road.   

“In order to make Hyderabad free from industrial pollution, it is inevitable to shift the polluting units to outskirts of Hyderabad, for which we have already identified some of the areas and have started works to build dedicated multiple pharma clusters.  The pharma city project is one among them which would accommodate not just bulk drugs, formulations and other chemical manufacturing units but it will also accommodate leading research and pharmaceutical education institutions. We are planning to build these pharma clusters with all kinds of facilities required on par with international standards for the bulk drug, formulations and other industries. As part of this we have convened a meeting with the members of the BDMA and sought their suggestions,” informed the Minister.

To discuss further on the issues concerning the bulk drug industries and their problems, the Bulk Drugs Manufacturers Association (BDMA) has also conducted a seminar on ‘Industrial Infrastructure for Sustainable Growth of Pharma and Bulk Drugs’ last week, on the occasion of silver jubilee celebration of the Association in Hyderabad.

Dr V M Katoch, Former Secretary, Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Research and Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research, who delivered his keynote address, stressed on the need for the development of industrial infrastructure for growth of bulk drug industry in the country and reduce India’s dependence on imports, particularly from China.

During the seminar, many prominent speakers said that government of India’s initiative of cluster development programme for pharma industry is a great move to help India become more competitive and self-sufficient. “Dedicated pharma parks with integrated infrastructure such as captive power generation, common effluent treatment plants (CETP), solid waste disposal and landfills, road-rail-air connectivity and many such facilities will help encourage existing and new companies to invest and promote the manufacturing of APIs in the countries,” said, Jayanth Tagore, executive director, BDMA.

Overall, in the coming few years, Hyderabad is going to become a strong bulk drug manufacturing hub and a leading API producer in India, for which both the state, central governments and other stakeholders of Industry are working in coordination with each other to bring a sea change in the bulk drugs segment.