Pharma entrepreneurs in Kerala want support from govt to generate job opportunities
Chennai, August 12, 2021:
A webinar on "Prospects and Opportunities of Pharmaceutical Industry in Kerala" organised by the state Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (KPMA) in association with Kerala Pharmacy Graduates Association (KPGA) has come to the conclusion that governmental intervention is the only solution for the industry to overcome the challenges it faces today.
The speakers included pharma entrepreneurs and retired enforcement officers who observed that no institution or a student in a pharmacy college in Kerala could benefit out of the limited number of manufacturing units operating in the state which completely depended on other states for its medicinal requirements. Assessing the large-scale consumption of medicines by the people of Kerala, the industry leaders observe that around 99 percent of the total use is with products manufactured by companies in north India. Even, there is not the facility for a graduate in pharmacy to get a comfortable placement in a local company in Kerala, the speakers felt.
According to Matthew Kokkadu, a pharma visionary and entrepreneur, the state government is not providing due consideration for pharmaceutical sector as a major industry. Due to lack of support from government, the number of manufacturing units has come down to 20 from 100 plus in a period of 20 years. Government, the biggest employer is not aware of the possibility of large-scale employment opportunities that can be generated for pharmacy graduates in the pharma and biotech sectors. He said the pharma marketing companies operating in Kerala are tying up with north Indian manufacturers for contract manufacturing. If these marketers engage domestic players for their production, even though they are tiny, it will boost the pharma MSME sector in Kerala.
K Ashok Kumar, managing director of Megasys Biotek Pvt Ltd in Kochi, while speaking, said apart from formulation development and R&D, the graduates in pharmaceutical sciences can go well in marketing side. They can be equipped for training the sales representatives, product managers, brand managers and for evolving new strategies for product development and marketing. He observes that unless employment opportunities are created in the existing pharma companies, the graduates coming out of the 56 institutions in Kerala will become unemployed and their future will be in darkness.
Dr. AD Krishnan, managing director of Vysali Pharmaceuticals in Ernakulam is of the view that the state can become self-sufficient in pharma production provided manufacturing of raw materials (API) is also done here. He said his company can be taken as a typical example for producing the ingredient for pencilin and there were some other firms engaged in the production of certain APIs a few years ago. So, API production is not a new area in the pharmaceutical sector of Kerala.
Prabhakaran Moozad, director of Lab Indus Pvt Ltd in Palakkad, has presented a clear picture of the talented pharmacy graduates in the state. He said every year, about 3,000 B Pharm graduates are coming out, but this pool of talents remain unutilized. According to him, the pharma companies are in need of talented pharmacy graduates in employing formulation development, dossier preparations, audit training, testing methods etc. Unfortunately, pharma firms in Kerala are getting these jobs done with the help of consultants and contract manufacturers of other states.
Purushothaman Nambuthiri, president of KPMA said the association will soon meet the industry minister and submit a memorandum. PharmaBiz