Last Updated on February 10, 2021 by The Health Master
The government plans to select more pharmaceutical firms for its production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for 37 bulk drugs by the end of this month, department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) secretary S. Aparna said.
The selection will be for the second tranche of bulk drugs for which the PLI scheme was formulated, which follows the approval of three pharma companies, Aurobindo Pharma Ltd, Karnataka Antibiotics & Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Kinvan Pvt. Ltd, for four products—penicillin G, 7-ACA, erythromycin thiocyanate and clavulanic acid.
With no local production of these four bulk drugs, drugmakers in the country were entirely dependent on imports for them.
Out of the ₹6,940 crore incentive set aside for the bulk drug PLI over six years, ₹3,600 crore, or more than half, will go into these four drugs, Aparna said. The remaining will be for the other 37 drugs.
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“The others are coming up for the next meeting of the empowered committee. We are planning to have that next week and get the others also done in the next tranche.
So, we hope to dispose of the other applications by the end of February. That is our planning,” Aparna said at a press conference.
The other 37 drugs for which applications will be reviewed include para-amino phenol, which is used to make paracetamol; the antibiotic ciprofloxacin; and the hypertension drug telmisartan.
In total, the government received 215 applications from 83 firms, with many applying for multiple products, Mansukh Mandaviya, minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers, said on Monday.
The PLI scheme was formulated by the DoP last year with an aim to boost production of 53 critical raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry.
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