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The Gujarat pharmaceutical industry is upbeat as around 900 out of 1,100 plants have started operations in the state despite lockdown imposed by the government to contain COVID-19. Most of these plants produce formulations. Out of the 1,100 plants, 900 manufacturing plants have started working at 80% of its capacity.
The state today has 600 WHO-GMP manufacturing units and around 130 US FDA approved pharmaceutical units, as per official records.
“There are manufacturing units which are likely to start operations soon which include APIs, formulations and medical device units. These 900 plants represent major companies like Alembic, Sun Pharma, Intas, Troikaa Pharma among others,” informed Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) Commissioner Dr HG Koshia.
“Today we have 334 licensed hand sanitisers manufacturers from the earlier 234 manufacturers. We are well equipped to meet the demands of key drugs for COVID-19 patients like hydoxychloroquine (HCQ), lopinavir and ritonavir as we move forward to export HCQ to regulated markets for COVID-19 patients,” Dr Koshia explained.
Gujarat government has procured over one crore HCQ tablets to cater to the COVID-19 patients and healthcare workers. Hydoxychloroquine which is now a Schedule H1 drug is required for prophylactic use for healthcare workers and for people exposed to COVID-19 positive cases besides its wide therapeutic use.
According to official estimates, Gujarat has the capacity of 15 metric tonnes capacity available in the form of three bulk drug manufacturers which can produce seven crore hydroxychloroquine tablets at one go. There are three bulk drug players like Cadila Healthcare, Vital Laboratories, Mangalam Drugs and Organics in Gujarat.
The Gujarat government is first such state government which has recently exempted sale and distribution of ethanol for production of hand sanitisers in order to tide over the shortage of hand sanitisers in the state.
Gujarat FDCA recommended the prohibition department to exempt ethanol sale for production of hand sanitisers. Hand sanitizer was brought under the ambit of essential commodities and subsequent price control to regulate its illegal sale in the unorganized market. Gujarat government is also awaiting a favourable policy on bulk drugs and medical devices as the Centre is mulling over to frame an exclusive policy on the same.
Some of the major companies to start operations based on the layout design approvals of plants are Exotic Pharma, Godhara, Aashka Formulation, Gandhinagar, Akshar Air Gases, Surat, Swan Medicot Morbid, Fishfa Biogenics, Rajkot, Chevron Pharma, Bharuch, Alidac Pharmaceuticals, Ahmedabad Rural, Madilyn Healthcare, Ahmedabad Rural, M J Healthcare, Mehsana, Labron Healthcare, Mehsana, Trio Lifescience, Ahmedabad city, Punishka Healthcare, Edkem Pharmaceuticals, Avantika Medex, Derek Healthcare, Dewcare Concept, Afeel Life Care, Rajkot and Moksh Pharmaceuticals, Vadodara.
The environment is conducive for development of pharmaceutical industry as Gujarat government has also revised its time line for grant of manufacturing licenses to 60 days from the earlier stipulated time line of 120 days. Revision of timeliness for grant of manufacturing licenses has been a major initiative of the government as part of Pharma Vision 2020 under the Right of Citizens to Services for speedy issuance of licenses.
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