AP to bid for Bulk Drug Park; invites RFPs from private developers

Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) has called for Request For Proposals (RFP) for a setting up a Bulk Drug Park (BDP).

The State Government is planning to set up the BDP in line with the recent announcement of the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India.

Citing the DoP-GoI scheme of `Promotion of Bulk Drug Parks’ notified on July 27, 2020 APIIC said the private developers or join-ventures developers who are willing to give a minimum of 2,000 acres for the park in the Design, Build, Finance and Operate’ model and partner with APIIC can send proposals for partnership.

The individual developers and firms can submit the proposals before September 18, 2020 in the format given in the APIIC portal.

In order to encourage domgestic production of critical Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Key Starting Materials and medical devices, the Union Cabinet on March 12 approved a scheme for development of three bulk drugs and four medical devices parks in which the Centre will extend grants-in-aid to States with a maximum limit of ₹1,000 crore per bulk drug park and ₹100 crore per medical device parks.

The move assumes significance in the wake of recent efforts to reduce dependency of Indian pharma industry on import of the raw materials from China.

About 65 per cent of the raw materials for Indian drug makers worth $3.5 billion are being sourced from China.

The rising cost of APIs being imported is another major concern as it adversely impacts cost of production as well as the margins of Indian firms. According to a note of the Ministry of Commence, between March and May this year, there has been a 20 per cent increase in prices due to the impact of Covid-19.