Chemexcil opposes split

The office-bearers of Chemexcil, who held a press meet here today, said that they would hold a dialogue with the aggrieved members from the pharma industry.

They said they would meet chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, who not only had offered financial assistance of Rs 3 crore for Pharmaexcil, but also agreed to provide land and other infrastructure if the body were to be headquartered in Hyderabad.

Last week, the president of the Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA), Venkat Jasti, had spoken about the setting up of Pharmaexcil's headquarters in the city.

Chemexcil chairman Satish W Wagh said that the council had been taking care of the export promotional interests of bulk drugs, intermediates and formulations companies since its inception in 1963 with the result that the pharmaceutical industry had grown from Rs 1,541.5 crore to Rs 11,925 crore.

The Indian pharma industry now ranks fourth in volume and 14th in value terms globally, he pointed out.

At a time when joint and concerted efforts are required to promote the pharmaceutical industry, fragmentation of Chemexcil as being sought by certain pharma bodies would not help achieve the exports target of Rs 61,000 crore for Chemexcil as a whole and Rs 24,000 crore for the pharma industry by the year 2006-07, said Wagh .

Already, with several pharma associations like BDMA, IDMA, OPPI, IPA and other state-level bodies functioning and with representation on Chemexcil, the formation of Pharmaexcil would only create duplication of work.

It would also create confusion in the minds of overseas corporates and retard export growth, Wagh said expressing concern.

Admitting that the pharma industry had not got the attention it deserved in recent years, he said the newly elected body would redress the grievances in the short run.

He attributed the lack of proper attention to the pharma industry in the past to merchant-exporters who had a greater say in the affairs of Chemexcil.