Southern states reach out to Guj cos for drugs supply

A team of officials from Kerala comprising drug inspectors and academics from pharmacy colleges visited Gujarat recently

Officials from the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala have recently met pharma companies in Gujarat to initiate the process of procuring drugs for distribution in their public health facilities.

Most states, including Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have drug procurement agencies like the Gujarat Medical Services Corporation limited (GMSCL), Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC) and Kerala Medical Services Corporation (KMSCL). These corporations essentially procure drugs through tendering processes which they then distribute in their public health facilities.

Only recently, a team of officials from Kerala comprising drug inspectors and even academics from pharmacy colleges visited some of the drug manufacturing facilities in Gujarat and met representatives of the pharma companies here. A city-based mid-sized pharma firm Troikaa Pharma’s managing director Ketan Patel said, “The KMSCL officials are very conscious about quality, and hence they decided to visit the facilities before they start procuring for their corporation.”

A senior official from Ahmedabad-based Intas Pharma too confirmed that talks are on with the KMSCL for supply of drugs.

Earlier this year, a team from the TNMSC too had visited Gujarat meeting small and medium manufacturers and discussing possibilities of them participating in the corporation’s tendering process. A small scale pharma firm from Vadodara said, “Several big pharma firms are not keen to supply drugs to these government corporations as the margins are low, and this indeed opens up an opportunity before smaller firms to supply in bulk to these outfits, ensuring volumes.” Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration too had helped TNMSC in reaching out to SME manufacturers in the state.

Gujarat and TNMSC have close associations, for that matter the proposal to grant autonomy to the Central Medical Stores Organisation (CMSO) and form the GMSCL was based on the idea to develop an autonomous corporation in the lines of TNMSC. Senior health department officials had visited Tamil Nadu to study the TNMSC model in order to replicate that in Gujarat.