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New formulation & API units are coming up in Rajasthan as govt’s pharma policy brings good result
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Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai
August 25 , 2021
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The efforts of the Rajasthan government to attract more pharma entrepreneurs from other states to invest in the state’s pharmaceutical sector are bringing good results with several new formulations and API units have already started operations.
While domestic players are concentrating on formulation units, investors from other states are focusing their attention on production and promotion of the ‘building blocks’ of the drug industry such as drug intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients (key starting materials/KSM), according to the association of pharmaceutical manufacturers in Rajasthan.
Association finds that the steps taken by the state government will boost the drug manufacturing industry to become self-sufficient in the production and supply of state’s medicinal requirements and to generate more employment opportunities for the pharmacy graduates in the years to come.
“Now the trend has changed. Previously people were closing and going out of the field. Now more people want to invest in the pharma sector which is handsomely supported by the present government. Some of the already established companies have their own manufacturing plants and others are operating on contract manufacturing. In another one year, the state will have a good number of new formulation companies to supply all kinds of medicines for the state’s requirement. After the Covid created operation-disruptions, a new trend is now emerging among new entrepreneurs for new start-ups in the pharma sector”, observes Vinod Kalani, president of the Rajasthan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (RPMA).
He said the industry faces no challenges in procuring raw materials either from the Indian market or from other countries. In the same way it has no difficulty in marketing their products. Government is taking a lot of steps to reduce the regulatory burden on entrepreneurs and assist the industry in all ways. However, there are only a few numbers of major players and most of them are coming under the MSME sector. RPMA is now negotiating with the government for a pharma park where formulation and API units want to be set up. But the government is working out on a project of API pharma cluster near Jaipur.
Kalani said about 35 manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients and 90 units of formulations are operating all over Rajasthan. His company, Jaipur Pharmaceutical Works, is one of the oldest manufacturing companies in the state. It has a facility in Dehradun in Uttharakhand also. He said Rajasthan is a big medicine consumer state which is procuring a major share of its consumption from outside.
Sharing inputs, Dr M S Rathore, principal of Gitanjali College of Pharmacy in Udaipur said the policy of the state government is helping the industry sector which in turn helps the academic sector also. Establishment of more pharmaceutical companies will help generate more employment opportunities for the pharmacy graduates. As far as Rajasthan is concerned, job opportunities for pharmacy graduates are less compared to other states. Besides, the expansion of the industry sector will create industry-academia interaction which can lead to more employment as well as training facilities for the pharmacy students.
Dr Rathore has recently completed a project on industry-academia interaction which he will submit to the government and to RPMA for a better association between pharmacy institutions and manufacturing companies.
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