Govt order spells doom on pharma cos

Indore, Sep 27(UNI) Pharmaceutical companies have to face the catch-22 situation consequent upon the instructions of the government, enforced from October 2, according to which the labelling over the container of the medicines should be explicitly shown in Hindi as well as English.

Non-compliance of the government order would make them defaulter and government may constrain to stop their manufacturing. Industry sources revealed that the dealers and retailers have a huge stock with them which would last in a period of more than six months to one year, then only the compliance of the Government order would be feasible.

There are about 80 small-scale as well as medium-scale pharma companies in Indore city, but none of them show their readiness to adopt the change in accordance with the Government order.

Wholesale dealers of the medicines said the present stock would take about six months to exhaust thus customers would get the Hindi-labelled medicines in about an year.

Strict action taken by the Government against the retailers and wholesale dealers would be creating a problem to the manufacturing units.

There are a few manufacturing units which according to the mandatory rules framed by the Ministry of Chemicals would be able to make compliance with effect from October 2, 2006, whereas most of the companies do not possess capability to act according to the rules.

Madhya Pradesh Small Drug Manufacturer Association President Himanshu Shah said all pharma manufacturing companies are ready to comply with the rules, but the time limit prescribed for the change is too short. ''So many products are being processed and a good number of labelling will be required to be designed for which ample time is necessary.'' Mr Dheeraj Lula, Director of Indore Lab Ltd, also supported Mr Shah saying the Government instructions are clear that only those medicines on which the date of manufacture is prior to October 2, 2006, would only be allowed to be sold to the customers without Hindi label.

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