Pharma technology upgradation assistance scheme to be launched soon

Chennai: The Union department of pharmaceuticals will launch a Pharmaceutical Technology Upgradation Assistance Scheme (PTUAS), which will help small and medium pharmaceutical companies to technologically  upgrade their units and make them WHO-GMP compliant in the next few months, its secretary, V.K. Subburaj, said on Friday. The scheme will provide assistance to companies through financial institutions and an initial corpus of '500 crore had been allocated for this scheme, he said.

 He was talking to newspersons after inaugurating the fourth zonal office of the Pharmaceuticals  Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) here. Mr Subburaj said Tamil Nadu was fast growing in pharmaceutical exports with a growth rate of 10 per cent a year. Nearly Rs 4,000 crore worth pharma  products were being exported from Tamil Nadu alone, he said.

He said the country’s pharma manufacturing capability had increased tremendously in the past few years and had reached around '2 lakh crore in market value. “The striking aspect of Indian pharmaceutical industry is that its export business is more than the domestic business. We are exporting more than '1 lakh crore worth pharmaceuticals products to
more than 220 countries.”
However, India’s contribution to the global market is only up to 2.5 per cent. This has to be increased to 25 percent. It will be achievedonly if the companies maintained quality. The Director General of Pharmexcil, P. V.Appaji,  said the new zonal office in the city will support manufacturers from South India for exporting their products.