The government of India is planning to set up dedicated pharma zones at airports and sea ports to facilitate import and export of pharmaceuticals, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation Drug Controller General of India Surendra Singh said today.
The pharma zone would be initially set up at airports in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and would have dedicated area only for pharmaceutical products, Singh told reporters here. The ‘macro layout’ had been deliberated upon, but the details would be taken up for discussion at a meeting scheduled to be held in New Delhi shortly where all the stake holders including private developers, import-export traders, custom officials were expected to attend, he said.
The layout is expected to be frozen in June and it is up to the private developers to decided on the operationalising of the zone. Each zone is expected to require an investment of
Rs seven crore per zone, he added.Moreover, the zone would have facility to store drugs in cool temperature of 20-25 degrees to prevent of the pharamaceutical, he pointed out.
It would also have facilities for screening of drugs, a sampling area and would also house a port office for facilitating import and export of drugs, Singh said.
Singh also announced the setting up of a port office in Bangalore airport for facilitating import and export.
He said earlier all the drugs had to be shifted from here to Chennai for shipment abroad leading to overhead cost and delays. Such a facilty would help in cutting time on shipment time and cost factor, he said.Initially,the port would have a senior drug inspector and two trainee inspectors and there would be additional manpower added if the volume increased. The facility spread is expected to be operationalised in two weeks' time, he said.
As part of its overall exercise at strengthening the pharmaceutical industry and India's image in the global market as a reliable and credible source of drugs, there is plan to upgrade the current Hyderabad and Ahmedabad subzonal office as zonal offices.
taking the number of zonal offices to six, Debashish Panda, Joint Secretary, Drugs, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said. There were plans to set up new sub zonal office in industrial area of Baddi, HP and upgrade the port office as sub-zonal office in Karnataka.
The setting up of the facility would help in facilitating license approval, inspection of clinical trial audits, clinical monitoring devices,he said. The Indian drug and pharma manufacturing was estimated to be around 15 to 18 bn USD.Fifty percent of production account for exports.
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