The Hindu Business Line : Bangalore gets pharma port office

Bangalore, a hub of biotechnology, clinical trials and pharma research, will also have a sub-zonal office of the Ministry’s drug quality arm, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, the Drugs Controller-General of India, Dr Surinder Singh, said on Wednesday.

The port facility is part of the ongoing exercise to build capacity and recruit more people at the CDSCO, Mr Debashish Panda, Joint Secretary, Union Department of Health & Family Welfare, said. Dedicated pharma zones equipped with cold rooms would come up at the Delhi and Mumbai airports by March 2010; the stakeholders and operators of the two airport were meeting in Mumbai on May 8.

Drug makers in Karnataka account for about Rs 2,500 crore worth of products, of which 60 per cent is exported. They contribute 8 per cent of the nation’s total pharma exports.

Sub-zonal office

The sub-zonal office would speed up the growing need at the State level for regulatory processes. Dr Singh said the central drug agency’s role had grown beyond clearing chemical entities into now looking at vaccines, and drug safety, clinical trials for new drugs, medical devices, pharmacovigilance, among others.

The port office would facilitate faster movement of drug exports and imports into and out of Bangalore. The new office will be set up in two weeks’ time and the port functioning in the next few weeks with a senior drug inspector being posted from Chennai, he told newspersons here. Two inspectors would be trained and posted as the trade volume grew, said Dr Singh.

The airport facility was a long-pending demand of the local pharma industry; until now it depended on Chennai or Kochi for clearances to move its consignments in or outside the country. According to Mr Jatish Seth, Secretary of the Karnataka Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers’ Association, local pharma companies could now expect to gain at least a week in getting approvals and moving their products.

Chandigarh, with proximity to Punjab and excise-free manufacturing hub Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, will also be designated a sub-zone.

The CDSCO has elevated Hyderabad and Ahmedabad from sub-zones to zonal offices in the league of the existing Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata zonal offices, Dr Singh said.

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