Thiruvananthapuram: The state government’s plan to set up a Pharma Park in Kochi will be set in motion soon with an extended meeting of small and medium scale drug manufacturing units to take them on board.
The meeting has been convened in the wake of government’s decision to set up the park on MSME model. Though the government was expecting Centre’s nod for transfer of FACT land in Kochi for setting up the park in March, the decision got delayed because of the announcement of Lok Sabha elections. The file is before the union cabinet.
A high-level team of experts visited Pharmacity and Pharma park in Hyderabad recently for examining the facilities provided to drug manufacturers. Dr B. Ekbal who led the team said the Telangana park followed a business model. They are giving land and all other facilities to private companies to scale up drug manufacturing. But there is no control of the government over the price or the requirement of medicines for the state from the park.
“Our idea is to promote small medium and small scale enterprises, production of quality generic medicines at reasonable prices and meet the requirement of the state. Our project is conceived keeping in view the health requirements of the state. Such initiatives are part of the social responsibility of the government, especially in the health sector,” Dr Ekbal added. The project is being implemented by KSIDC and KINFRA.
Meanwhile, pharma experts while welcoming the proposed project said steps are required to make it economically and financially viable.
“In Kerala the manufacturing units are not economically viable. The cost of unskilled labour, raw material, packing and printing is very high. Manufacturing potential in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is high because of the low cost of man and material,” said Dr K. G. Revikumar, former head, clinical pharmacy department , Trivandrum MC.
