Drug makers seek policy aid to reduce China reliance

The govt had earlier announced plans to set up bulk drug parks, with a policy to support manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients

The pharma industry has said it might have to continue to depend on China for raw materials with the Centre lowering support to bulk drug manufacturing.

The government had earlier announced plans to set up bulk drug parks and come out with a policy to support manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and intermediates, ingredients used to produce the final formulation medicine. It was also meant to protect India from a drug shortage if the flow of these ingredients from China was affected.

“While the plan was to boost the industry with an investment of Rs 5,000 crore, this has been reduced to setting up common effluent plants in three bulk drug parks with a total outlay of Rs 600 crore. More than the parks, the industry was expecting some incentives to upgrade facilities, and subsidies for land and electricity,” said SV Veeramani, president, Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association.

According to a report, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar said the government had decided against a bulk drug policy and that states would have to come up with the parks. M Narayana Reddy, MD of Virchow Laboratories and a member of the Bulk Drug Manufacturers’ Association, said a policy would have helped the industry meet infrastructure and related concerns. Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a reply in Parliament in May that API imports to India were around $2.22 billion in 2014-15.

"In 12 essential drugs — paracetamol, metformin, ranitidine, amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, cefixime, acetyl salicylic acid, ascorbic acid, ofloxacin, ibuprofen, metronidazole and ampicillin — there is significant dependence on imports for drug ingredients and substantial imports of these products are from China," she said.

The policy was expected to address the delay in environment clearances that takes up to two years now. The manufacture of a few kg of chemicals should not be treated on the same lines as the chemical industry, said manufacturers.

A committee constituted to study APIs of critical importance has said there is a need for building an ecosystem to promote investment. It also sought improvements in the regulatory regime.