Schemes Launched to Boost Pharma Infrastructure in India

Pharma industry in India: Relevance

• GS 3: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Pharma sector in India: Context

• The department of pharmaceuticals has recently launched a scheme, Strengthening of Pharmaceuticals Industry (SPI) to strengthen the existing infrastructure facilities of pharmaceutical industries to make India a global leader in the pharma sector.

Pharmaceutical sector in India: Key points

• The department of pharmaceuticals now plans to issue a detailed guideline of the SPI scheme and is expected to release the notification of inviting the application for both sub-schemes of the SPI soon.
• The scheme constitutes of two components: Assistance to Pharmaceutical Industry for Common Facilities (API-CF) and Pharmaceutical Technology Upgradation Assistance Scheme (PTUAS).

API-CF

• The API-CF sub-scheme has an outlay of ₹178 crore and is a five-year period scheme.
• The scheme aims to strengthen existing pharma clusters’ capacity for sustained growth, by creating common facilities with a focus on research and development labs, testing laboratories, effluent treatment plants, logistic and training centres.

PTUS sub-scheme

• The PTUAS sub-scheme has an outlay of ₹300 crore.
• The scheme proposes support for pharma SMEs, either through up to a maximum of 5% per annum (6% in case of units owned and managed by SC/STs) of interest subvention or through credit-linked capital subsidy of 10%.

Strengthening of Pharmaceuticals Industry: Significance of the scheme

• Though India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally, it is still dependent on other countries for medical devices.
• India is 70-80% dependent on other countries and the announcement of the medical device policy will help address the 12-15% disability faced in attempting to manufacture medical devices in India.

Strengthening of Pharmaceutical Industry (SPI) objectives

• To strengthen the existing infrastructure facilities in order to make India a global leader in the Pharma Sector by providing Financial assistance to pharma clusters for creation of Common Facilities.
• To upgrade the production facilities of SMEs and MSMEs, to meet national and international regulatory standards, by providing interest subvention or capital subsidy on their capital loans.
• To promote knowledge and awareness about the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Industry by taking up studies, building databases and brining industry leaders, academia and policy makers together to share their knowledge and experience.

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