PANAJI:  Before this financial year, Goa’s only airport at Dabolim and only seaport that is the Mormugao port will be notified by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) as import and export bases for pharma products. Discussions are going on with MPT for a pharma infrastructure base.

Goa which is home to some 75 pharmaceutical manufacturing units has grown to ` 6,000 crore industry, out of which
Rs 4,000 crore is exported by 56 companies. Thirty five companies are WHO approved, and on the whole the industry is growing at 14 per cent per annum.
DCGI’s Dr Surinder Singh has assured the Food and Drug Administration director, Mr Salim Veljee of the requested import and export bases at a meeting held in the city on Sunday with the Goa Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers Association (GPMA) headed by Mr Arun Naik president.
Presently all exports and imports is through a bonded agreement with Mumbai JNPT to Goa. But with the new development to be enforced, the pressure will be less on security risks and other safety factors, Mr Naik told ‘The Navhind Times.’ He said a GPMA building is being planned in the Verna industrial estate.
The DCGI recognisation will attract neighbouring pharma manufacturers to use the Goa ports, and more manufacturing units will com here, said Mr Veljee, and adding, discussions are on with the MPT to set up an infrastructure base for the exports and imports of pharmaceutical products.
Mr Veljee has urged DCGI to recognise the FDA laboratory in Bambolim in line with the Centre’s laboratories like in other states. The infrastructure is already in place, and this will help the pharma companies in the analysing of imports of drugs.
Dr Surinder Singh highlighted future developments of framing new guidelines for giving approvals for biotech industries. He said 70 per cent of bulk drug is imported from China, and we must promote the Indian bulk industries, or the Indian dialysis industry will collapse. He stressed upon quality and ethics. About a year and half, over 100 of import licences were cancelled, attributed to poor ethics and exploiting gaps in the system. Dr Singh said inspectors will be sent overseas to inspect the plant and product before it is imported to India. An ` 1-crore budget for overseas inspection is in the pipeline. The DCGI is in search of land to set up an office in Goa. The ` 1-lakh crore pharma industry is growing at 10 to 15 per cent.
Dr Singh is against acquisitions of Indian pharma companies by multinational drug companies, the Ministry of Health should devise ways of how to keep lucrative national companies from being sold.