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The Task Force on 'Development of Manufacturing Capabilities in each Medical Vertical in Pharmaceutical Production' has asked the government to provide policy, infrastructure and regulatory support to the industry to boost domestic production of drugs for Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) to increase access to treatment for people suffering from NCDs.
In its recommendation to the government, the Task Force, headed by secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), asked the government to increase government spending on medicines to increase access to treatment for people suffering from NCDs. It also asked the government to reduce interest rates as the margins in APIs are very less. Those who use domestic API should be given price incentives on finished products and cost of machines should be rationalised and competitively priced, it said.
Earlier in December 2014, the DoP constituted this Task Force to identify focus areas for development of manufacturing capabilities in the respective medical vertical, including NCDs vertical, keeping in mind the specificities of each medical discipline.
Asking the government to provide infrastructure support to the domestic industry to boost production of drugs of NCDs, the Task Force said that supply and distribution system of medicine is weak and fragmented, which needs to be strengthened. It also recommended efficient procurement and distribution of NCD medicines from the private players by the government (based on Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC)/Rajasthan Medical Services Corporation (RMSC) model. Storage and distribution system needs qualitative improvement. The storage and distribution under required conditions (temperature, humidity, sunlight etc.) are not of desired standard, affecting quality of medicines. Cheap power should be made available to pharma industries. Public sector should be strengthened to raise availability of essential NCD medicines and also to reduce cost of medicines. Right infrastructure such as road, railway, airports and ports will encourage investors in establishing manufacturing units in India. Besides, the government should encourage cluster-based development in the pharmaceutical sector to help in creating common facilities like common R&D centre, common testing labs, common effluent treatment plant, training centre etc. for development of SME, the task force recommended.
On regulatory issue, the Task Force recommended that the government should facilitate faster environmental clearance, land acquisition and administrative clearances. Price control is to be made effective for improving access to medicines for Indian patients.
It further recommended that import duty on external suppliers of API should be levied. The external API suppliers should be registered by local authorities and their plants be also inspected. Anti-dumping duty on key intermediates should be levied to protect domestic pharma industry.
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