Chennai: The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP)’s Task Force has urged the Centre to ensure drugs were made available for communicable diseases in tier II-III cities and rural areas.
The Task Force on ‘Development of Manufacturing Capabilities in each Medical Vertical in Pharmaceutical Production’ had in its report submitted to the Centre has asked the government to review the policies that restricted the distribution and availability of drugs for communicable diseases.
In its recommendations on the communicable diseases the panel suggested that quality control must be ensured and the available drugs should meet the prescribed standards.
It also asked the government to devise a Drug Indigenisation Support (DIS) for the local pharma companies to start indigenous production of critical Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) that are used particularly for NLEMs but are predominantly imported so far.
Providing incentives to the formulators procuring APIs from indigenous manufacturers by discontinuing the use of hitherto imported APIs, providing the local manufacturers suitable handholding at least for initial two years, so that they can compete in overseas markets while entering into the export contracts, were the other recommendations.
The Task Force, constituted by the DoP, further recommended that the list of APIs, which are in short supply or not manufactured in India may be drawn up and special incentives be offered to manufacturers to start manufacturing these APIs in India.
These APIs should be reviewed periodically and government should take steps to revive PSUs and assign PSUs the task of producing APIs requiring large investments.
