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Chairman of Dr Reddy’s Labs K Satish Reddy has said that restrictive policies in the drug sector were impacting the industry in an unhealthy way.
Referring to the price control of certain drugs through the Drug Pricing Control Order (DPCO), he said the discretionary policy in cutting down costs of a range of drugs would hurt the industries.
Theme Reddy, who is also the Chairman of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), was addressing the regional meet of the Department of Pharmaceuticals, co-hosted by the Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA), on the theme ‘2015 – The Year of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients’.
Reddy felt that the problem with such policies was that when squeezed beyond a point, the companies would stop producing life-saving and essential drugs, leading to shortages. In the last one year, the DPCO brought several hundred drugs under the price control list.
He, however, added that the industry should look inward, citing the example of the Ciprofloxocin fiasco, where the product was “so attractive that even film stars started making it,” leading to heavy competition within the industry, bringing the price so low that the industries “turned sick.”
He said that with patent law in place, the rules of the game have changed, but opportunities are still aplenty, and the industry must ultimately look at the interest of the patients.
Pharma City On the Telangana government’s plan for the Pharma City, he said that for something like that to be fully self-sufficient, providing avenues for skilling is a very important factor. “If we get this right,” he said, “the industry can go back to the glory days of the eighties.”
Arvind Kumar, Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department, Telangana, announced plans for the construction of the Pharma City Phase I , 30 km off Hyderabad. It will cover 4,000 acres of the proposed 10,000 acres.
The government has also invited a global Expression of Interest for the appointment of a Master Planning Consultant.
The meet was also a platform for the Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association to voice the various concerns that the industry had regarding regulatory and environment compliances in the bulk drug industry. President emeritus of the BDMA Narayan Reddy criticised the actions of the Pollution Control Board (PCB) which, according to him, were “anti-production, not anti-pollution.”
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