Bulk drug park

Bulk drug park

Subject : Economy

Context :

The department of pharmaceuticals has set up a high-level committee to monitor the progress of bulk drug parks.

Concept:

Bulk drug:

• A bulk drug, also called an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API)
• It  is the key ingredient of a drug or medicine, which lends it the desired therapeutic effect or produces the intended pharmacological activity.
  • For example, paracetamol-acts against pain-mixed with binding agents or solvents to prepare the finished pharmaceutical product, i.e. a paracetamol tablet, capsule or syrup.
• The primary chemical or the basic raw material which undergoes reactions to form an API is called the key starting material, or KSM. 
• Chemical compounds formed during the intermediate stages during these reactions are called drug intermediates or DIs.
• Types:
  • Chemical Synthetic Drugs
    • Inorganic – Examples – Aluminum hydroxide and Magnesium trisilicate
    • Organic – Examples – Aspirin, Chloramphenicol, Caffeine, etc.
  • Natural Chemical Drugs
    • Biochemical – Examples – Antibiotics
    • Phytochemical – Examples – Paclitaxel (taxol), Resveratrol

What are bulk drug parks?

• The department of pharmaceuticals announced a scheme for the promotion of three bulk drug parks in the country.
• A bulk drug park will have a designated contiguous area of land with common infrastructure facilities for the exclusive manufacture of APIs, DIs or KSMs, and also a common waste management system.
• It will provide financial assistance to three States for establishing Bulk Drug Parks and aims to bring down the cost of manufacturing of bulk drugs by creation of world class common infrastructure facilities thereby increasing the competitiveness of the domestic bulk drug industry.
• It is a Central Sector Scheme
• State Implementing Agencies (SIAs) will implement the scheme.
• The Centre will provide a one-time grant-in-aid for the creation of common infrastructure facilities.
  • The grant-in-aid will be 70 percent of the cost of the common facilities but in the case of Himachal Pradesh and other hill states, it will be 90 per cent.
  • The Centre will provide a maximum of Rs 1,000 crore per park.
• Selected states-Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh

How strong is Himachal’s case?

According to the state government, Himachal already has Asia’s largest pharma manufacturing hub, that is the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial belt, and the state produces around half of India’s total drug formulations.

About Pharmaceutical Industry:

• The Indian pharmaceutical industry is the third largest in the world by volume and It is the 14th largest in terms of value.
• India exported pharmaceuticals worth Rs. 1,75,040 crore in the financial year 2021-22, including Bulk Drugs/ Drug Intermediates.
• Also, India is one of the major producers of Active Pharma Ingredients (API) or bulk drugs in the world. However, the country also imports various Bulk Drugs/ APIs for producing medicines from various countries.