Pharma producers urge Nadda not to ban plastic packaging

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, December 26

Members of the Himachal Drug Manufacturers’Association (HDMA), Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA) and the Federation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (FOPE) met Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Monday.

They apprised him about the ramifications of banning the use of plastic containers for primary packaging of drug formulations for certain drugs after the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued its draft notification in September.

The associations said it would adversely affect the pharmaceutical industry, adding that its implementation would create a huge scarcity of bottles as adequate glass was not available to cater to the rising volume of the industry across the nation, where the annual requirement of bottles had touched 250 crore.

The glass manufacturers could barely cater to 25 to 30 per cent of the requirement.

Sanjay Guleria, advisor, HDMA, said if they opted for glass bottles it would lead to escalation of manufacturing cost by as much as 25 to 40 per cent on account of costlier glass packing and higher freight owing to breakage and spoilage involved in transportation of such drugs. This, would further push up the cost of liquid formulations.

The HDMA, which is a conglomerate of 650 drug firms of the state, while terming it as contrary to scientific facts, said the proposal was not even in confirmation with the established global practices.

BR Sikri, Chairman, FOPE, and SV Veeramani, president, Indian Drug Manufacturers, said even views of experts such as RA Mashelkar, who is a former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, had not been sought before issuing a draft notification and it was simply based on the non-substantive information provided by an NGO and was bereft of scientific basis.

Guleria said the minister had assured them that their points would be genuinely considered.