Centre did injustice to Telangana in allocation of Bulk Drug parks: KT Rama Rao
Hyderabad: Telangana IT and Industries Minister, KT Rama Rao on Friday alleged that the Centre made injustice to Telangana in the allocation of bulk drug park scheme while in-principle approval was given to three states Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat recently.
In a letter addressed to Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, KTR said Telangana is a state with a robust pharmaceutical sector and a vibrant ecosystem conducive to accelerated sectoral growth. While the state contributes to more than 40 percent of pharma production, it is a matter of pride that Hyderabad is also known as the Vaccine Capital of the World and played a crucial role in supplying WHO-approved vaccines to the world during the pandemic.
Telangana continues to attract investments in the sector and therefore, keeping in view the sectoral growth, demand for pharma infrastructure and a robust ecosystem to support the sector towards 'Atmanirbharta' "we had submitted an earnest application for the 'Bulk Drug Park' scheme as referenced above," KTR said in his letter.
The minister said the significant role of Hyderabad and its potential in steering the country towards self-sufficiency in bulk drug manufacturing will be considered objectively.
"Our proposal contained details of our flagship 'Pharma City' project which spread over 19000 acres and is the world's largest pharma cluster. While this project has garnered worldwide attention, unfortunately, it has not been given any consideration in the country," the letter said.
In his letter. the minister said, the Indian Pharmaceutical industry is a potent actor on the world stage with more than one-third contribution from Telangana, however, it is critically dependent (close to 70 percent of imports) on China for its raw materials, particularly the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and other key raw materials.
The issue of import dependence on pharmaceutical raw materials has been long recognized in the Country and the Central government had also constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Dr VM Katoch (former Secretary to Govt of India and Director General, ICMR) to propose ways to reduce imports.
In 2015, recommended the establishment of 6 mega parks of about 2,000 acres each with sufficient funding to set up all common environmental infrastructure, an income tax rebate for 10 years, and access to soft loans at 7.5 per cent, among others.
However, little progress was made in this direction until recently and realizing the urgency around the supply chain constraints during the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic, the scheme was launched in the year 2020 with the objective of addressing the national health security threat posed by the dependence on imports from China and to be implemented on a war-footing basis to protect the national interest, KTR said.
It may be noted that despite this effort during this period the imports rose by 23 per cent in April-September 2021, he added.
"It is unfortunate that despite the urgency, the Central government has taken more than two years to announce the decision on an in-principal approval, and we are surprised that a shallow decision has been taken, completely ignoring the fact that the establishment of an entirely greenfield Bulk Drug park will take significant time not less than 36 months," KTR said in his letter to Mandaviya.
"We state this with experience from our Pharma City Project which is available to support the objectives of the Bulk Drug Scheme towards improving the country's self-reliance on pharma manufacturing. It should be duly noted that such biased evaluations are impacting the national interest of becoming self-reliant and as a country, we will lose any advantage that may still remain after all these delays," he added.
"In my view, it will prove to be counter-productive to the country's efforts towards self-reliance and we will end up with under-developed and under-utilized infrastructure. This final decision will reverse the benefits of work undertaken by the Pharma industry and the resilience demonstrated during a pandemic," KTR said.
Read also: Department of Pharmaceuticals grants 'in-Principle' nod to 3 states to set up bulk drug parks
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