Telangana – Lockdown Restricts Drugs Production To 50% By BDMA

Medical shops and pharma companies in Telangana are struggling to meet the demands of consumers and the COVID-19 patients for important medicines.

Despite the relaxation for the functioning of medicine shops and drug manufacturers in Telangana only 50 % work is being done by the Bulk Drug Manufacturers.

Bulk Drug Manufacturers in Hyderabad and surrounding districts are unable to operate their units at full capacity due to lack of proper coordination with the State police.

The frequent checking of the buses carrying their employees and the seizure of the vehicles carrying the materials are hampering their efforts to operate 100 %.

P. Eshwar Reddy, the Executive Director of  Bulk Drug Manufacturers’ Association (BDMA,) said, “We are operating our units at 50 per cent of the capacity due to problems for movement of our employees and materials.”  He further added, “Most of the time police stop our buses and trucks despite showing them the passes.  There is not much coordination among the police in four commissionerates.  Police personnel in one commissionerate say the pass issued by the other commissionerate is not valid.  I can’t take passes from all four commissionerates.”

Speaking about the interruption in manufacturing of necessary drugs, Mr. Reddy said, “Our raw materials and various chemicals have to come from outside.  The transport movement is not smooth.  There are various issues with regard to availability of vehicles, labour and checkposts formed for enforcing the lockdown.”

Telangana is the drug capital of India as it contributes a 40 % production of drugs in India.

The bulk drug and pharmaceutical production mainly takes place in Hyderabad and surrounding districts of Rangareddy, Medchal, and Sangareddy.

These drug productions supplied necessary drugs like Hydroxychloroquine or its intermediates for the cure of the Novel Coronavirus patients.

Besides, they also provided azithromycin and other antiviral drugs used for treating COVID-19 patients in sufficient quantities.

Considering the high demand of drugs, the Telangana State Pollution Control Board also recently gave its consent to pharma companies to establish and operate industries.

Hyderabad and surrounding districts like Medchal, Rangareddy and Sangareddy has more than 800 life sciences companies and provided employment to nearly 1.20 lakh people.

These pharma companies are working in full swing taking all the precautionary measures of hygiene, social distancing and sanitization during the pandemic crises.  However, the movement issues and miscommunication with the State police is being an issue for these companies to operate smoothly.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Source: IANS.