Pharma entrepreneurs in TN foresee disruptions in production and supply of pharmaceuticals in months ahead

Chennai, August 7, 2021:

The pharmaceutical industry in Tamil Nadu foresees the months ahead in 2021 will be critical for the production and supply of pharmaceuticals because the increasing cost of production and the recurring logistic problems are likely to impede the smooth performances of the manufacturing units, according to pharma entrepreneurs in Chennai and Madurai.

The entrepreneurs feel that the last quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of this year were conducive to production and supply chains, but the months ahead, especially October and November, are not much promising for industry's growth. As far as the MSME units are concerned, it will be hard to overcome the challenging situations, says M Lakshmanan, managing director of Pharmafabrikon in Madurai.

He said raw material price rise is a major setback to production which impacts the supply and availability of medicines in the market. Along with raw materials, prices have gone up for several other materials. Besides, there is hike in freight rates and increase in duty charges. This creates logistic disturbances which will definitely affect the pharmaceutical industry's performances in Tamil Nadu, says Lakshmanan.

"Most of the raw materials for pharma industry are coming from China. Now the import has come down due to various reasons which affect badly the production of pharmaceuticals. Apart from shortage of active pharmaceutical ingredients, the entrepreneurs are running short of packaging materials like PVC film rolls, aluminium foils, plastic & polymers, glass, paper, and paper boards, which are coming from China on a reduced rate. Since Covid 19 has now started again increasing in other Asian countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Srilanka, demand for the Chinese raw materials has increased across countries in the Asian continent," says Lakshmanan.

Similar responses are coming from Chennai based entrepreneurs also.

M Rajaratinam, managing director of MMC Pharma in Chennai said manufacturing and logistic disruptions may happen in September, October and November months however precautions are taken to contain the spread of virus. According to him, continuance of increase in Covid positive cases will surely impede the movement of raw materials, packaging materials and finished products. He said, as far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, the hike in raw material prices and logistic disturbances will affect the pharmaceutical manufacturers in Chennai which is the production hub of allopathic medicines in Tamil Nadu. He added that there were only four companies in Madurai.

Meanwhile, M Lakshmanan, managing director of Pharmafabrikon in Madurai said there are only two pharma companies in Madurai, the other two are in the nearby city Trichy.

Regarding marketing of products in the southern districts of the state, Lakshmanan said since regular cough and fever of the people has come down to a great extent due to constant use of facemask and sanitiser, movement of antibiotics has reduced drastically. Further, doctors above the age of 60 are not opening their private clinics in Madurai, hence the marketing people of Pharmafabrikon are unable to get orders. He said about 1,000 private clinics are in Madurai, out of which 100 are located in Anna Nagar area where no clinic is functioning at present. PharmaBiz