Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar announced that 10 pharma clusters would be set up in the country at a cost of Rs 120 crore during 2015. He explained that these clusters will allow the Indian pharmaceutical industry to share common production facilities and help them reduce manufacturing costs by 25–30%. The minister believes that this will help make the Indian pharmaceutical industry globally competitive, as well as make health care in India more affordable.

The clusters’ key strategy is to make health care affordable to the poor in the country by supply of generics, building domestic capacity in bulk drugs and making the pharmaceutical sector competitive.

The plan is for pharmaceutical companies in a particular region to share development and various infrastructure and resources such as water, power and affluent treatment facilities.

Minister Kumar said a unified policy for regulation and administration is required for the pharmaceutical industry, and for this, he said, he has recommended the setting up of a separate department.

A plan is also being prepared to implement recommendations made in the Katoch committee report. Recommendations in this report include creating a single clearance process for licensing drugs and for the government to provide land at concessional rates.

India currently meets about 80% of its demand for bulk drugs or active pharmaceutical ingredients, used as raw materials by the pharmaceutical industry, from Chinese imports [1].

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Reference
1.   GaBI Online - Generics and Biosimilars Initiative. India urged to drop cost-based drug policy [www.gabionline.net]. Mol, Belgium: Pro Pharma Communications International; [cited 2015 Apr 3]. Available from: www.gabionline.net/Generics/General/India-urged-to-drop-cost-based-drug-policy 

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