Hindi label to prove a bitter pill for pharma industry

Pharmaceutical companies are in a Catch-22 situation after the government order which asked them to put up the labelling over the container of drugs explicitly in Hindi and English.

Non-compliance of the order, to be enforced from October 2, 2006, will make them a defaulter and the government can ask them to put their shutters down.

Sources said dealers and retailers have a huge stock of drugs with them which lasts six months to one year. For them, compliance of the government order will be possible only after that period.

There are 80 small-scale and medium-scale manufacturing pharmaceutical companies in Indore city alone. But none of them show their readiness to switch over to the change.

Apparently, wholesale dealers said their present stock would last at least for six months to exhaust. They hoped that customers will have the labels written in Hindi within a year.

According to the sources, if the government decides to crack the whip against retailers and wholesale dealers, manufacturing units would suffer.

There are a few manufacturing units which can follow the order of the Union ministry of chemicals and medicines from October 2 whereas most of the companies do not possess the wherewithal to fall in line.

The government has made it mandatory for manufacturing companies to show on the container "� printed in Hindi in addition to English "� the name of the medicine, maximum retail price inclusive of all taxes, dates of manufacturing and expiry.

One of the pharma firms, Jest Pharma, has implemented a scheme to follow the new order. Others like Cipla and Nicholes Piramil are waiting for a direction from the head office to make necessary changes in their manufacturing modes.

Himanshu Shah, MP Small Drug Manufacturers' Association president, said all manufacturing companies are willing to comply with the rules, but the time left for it is too short to act. To design a label change is time-consuming affair, particularly with the products that are being processed currently.

Dheeraj Lula, director of Indore Lab Limited, also supported Shah's view.

The government instructions are clear that the medicines on which the date of manufacture is prior to October 2, 2006, the same will only be allowed to be sold to customers; but no medicines manufactured after October 2, 2006, would be allowed in the market.