Andhra Pradesh Industries Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy today requested the Centre to facilitate uninterrupted supplies of raw materials for pharma companies making critical drugs.

After interacting with API producers in AP and Gujarat, and discussing issues relating to supplies and delays in clearances, he tweeted that some of the decisions to streamline imports and clearances do not seem to have percolated to the operational levels causing problems for manufacture of drugs.

He decided to take up the concerns expressed by pharma companies with the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of External Affairs to streamline the process of various clearances

During the meeting, pharma companies expressed their concerns about delayed shipments at ports, non-adherence to fixed prices by suppliers due to sudden demand. In addition, there have been lot of problems with regard to imports of APIs from China.

Referring to import bottlenecks in his tweet, the Minister sought intervention and assistance from Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Commerce Ministry, Ministry of External Affairs and Assocham to address issues related to API imports for Covid medicine manufacture.

He requested Centre to arrange Green Passes for uninterrupted supplies.