Tamil Nadu to set up Pharmaceutical Ingredients Park with Rs 770 crore

State has reported 15 positive Coronavirus cases so far

Tamil Nadu government has announced setting up of an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) Park in the state, with an investment of around Rs 770 crore amidst coronavirus menace. The state government also announced Rs 3280 crore to support the people who are suffering from the virus outbreak.

The new API Park to manufacture bulk drugs that would be used for finished dosages, will be set up in around 650 acre land in Cheyyar, in Thiruvannamalai district with basic amenities such as warehouses, research and development and waste treatment facilities, with an investment of Rs 770 crore, said State Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami today.

The move comes at a time when the coronavirus outbreak in China has raised concerns about availability of critical and essential bulk drugs to produce finished formulations of life saving medicines. The country is currently dependend on APIs from China for various such medicines, and disruption in availability of APIs was a concern for the industry and the public health experts.

The state government has also allocated around Rs 110 crore to set up coronavirus special facilities in various cities and upgrade the King Institute of Preventive Medicine & Research, Guindy, to a Bio Safety Level III centre.

It has also allocated Rs 3280 crore to support those who lost their livelihood due to restrictions over coronavirus in the state. It will be providing Rs 1000 to each ration cards which are eligible for rice and other food grains from the Public Distribution System. People who are working for daily wages, such as auto rikshaw drivers, construction workers etc will get Rs 1000 each along with 15 kg rice, one kg pulses and one kg of cooking oil.

The state government has said that six more people were tested positive, taking the total number of positive cases to 15. A total of 2,09,163 passengers were screened at the Airports of Chennai, Trichy, Madurai and Combatore and 15,298 are under home quarantine, while 43 aymptomatic passengers from highly affected countries are being quarantined in facilities near airport and 116 are under hospital isolation.