Pharmaceutical Industry in India
Pharmaceutical Industry in India
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Course: LLB
Section: A
COVID-19 Response
The Department of Pharmaceuticals actively led the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, not only nationally
but also internationally. Since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis and the resultant lockdown, DoP worked on a
mission mode basis to address the challenges arising out of the same. The challenges included co-ordination with
various Ministries/Departments and State Governments to resolve the issues associated with availability of Drugs
for COVID-19 and other Essential Drugs including HCQ, Paracetamol, Vaccines, TB, Insulin and cardiac drugs,
issues relating to sub optimal production, logistics, shortages and exports of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
There was continuous and round-the-clock activity including work on weekends & Gazette holidays. DoP had to
face issues with a range of activities and multifaceted challenges which the Department had never dealt earlier.
The details are outlined below:
(a) Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for promotion of domestic manufacturing of critical Key Starting Materials
(KSMs)/ Drug Intermediates (DIs) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) In India: Under the scheme, financial
incentive is proposed for manufacturing of 41 eligible products under the four Target Segments viz.:
iv. Other Chemical Synthesis based KSMs/Drug Intermediates/APIs. Incentives for incremental sales will be given to
selected participants for a period of 6 years.
The total outlay of the scheme is Rs. 6,940 crore and the scheme is under implementation after receiving good response
from the participants.
(b) Scheme for Promotion of Bulk Drug Parks: To provide grant-in-aid to 3 Bulk Drug Parks for creation of Common
Infrastructure Facilities (CIF) with a maximum limit of Rs.1000 crore per park or 70% of the project cost of CIF, whichever
is less. In case of North Eastern States and Hilly States (Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Union Territory of Jammu &
Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh) financial assistance would be 90% of the project cost. The total size of the Scheme
is Rs. 3000 crore and the tenure of the Scheme will be five years (2020-21 to 2024-25).
(c) Dependence on mandatory items which were generally not considered essential by states/local
administration but were actually essential for manufacturing of medicines.
Ancillary suppliers of inputs including packaging material, excipients (required for tablets and capsules
manufacturing), utility consumables like briquettes/gases (required to run boilers) and spare parts were
not able to operate/supply as they were not recognized by Police/local administration to be essential
commodities and services.
(d) Restriction in Inter-state movement of workers in plants situated at border of two states.
Inter-state and inter-district daily movement of workers was not being allowed from Vapi (Gujarat) to
plants in Daman & Silvassa. Major Pharma companies such as Sun Pharma (3 plants), IPCA, Alchemy,
USV, Macleod etc. have plants there. Apart from these plants, there are more than 30 plants of Small &
Medium size Companies. Similarly, in Baddi & Paonta Sahib (Himachal Pradesh), a large number of
Pharma units were facing this problem as many of their workers lived in Punjab & Haryana. Apart from
the above-mentioned examples there were other such instances e.g. workforce in Sarigam plant of Mylan
company in Gujarat were not allowed from UT of Silvassa & Daman.
The main objectives of setting up IDPL were not to earn profits but to encourage indigenous production
of pharmaceuticals and to support various health programmes of the Central Government. IDPL earned
Profit before Depreciation, Interest & Tax (PBDIT) from 1965 to 1968 and again from 1971 to 1974. It
earned net profit from five years continuously from 1974 to 1979; the Company lost its profitability
primarily due to change in Government policy about import of bulk drugs from supply to pharmaceuticals
Industry. The imports, which were canalized through IDPL till 1979, were entrusted to State Trading
Corporation (STC). IDPL was thus divested of a profit-making segment. The erstwhile Board for
Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) declared IDPL as a sick industrial Company in August.
1992. In February 1994, BIFR approved the Rehabilitation Scheme under Section 17(2) of SICA. The
package, however, failed to turnaround the company. In January 1996, BIFR appointed Industrial
Development Bank of India (IDBI) as Operating Agency (OA) for Techno-Economic Analysis and
preparation of Revival Package. The issue of revival of the company remained pending in BIFR as well
as with the Govt. while attempts were made in 2001-02 to privatize the Company. OA (IDBI) however,
did not find any proposal worthy of recommendations to BIFR.
2) https://www.ibef.org/industry/pharmaceutical-india
3) https://www.investindia.gov.in/sector/pharmaceuticals