‘Entrepreneurs to take part in govt meds tender process’

Kanpur: Deputy chief minister Brijesh Pathak assured the office-bearers of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association that from now onwards small entrepreneurs would be allowed to participate in the tender process for procurement of government medicines.
General secretary of the association Atul Seth said it is a historic win for the small-scale entrepreneurs, who have been striving hard for the past 20 years for participation in the tender process for procurement of government drugs. The deputy chief minister held a meeting with the office-bearers of the association at his residence in Lucknow on Tuesday.
During the meeting, president CS Bhargava and general secretary Atul Seth told him in detail about the problems.
They told deputy CM that Uttar Pradesh Medical Supplies Corporation Ltd has put a condition of annual turnover of Rs 5 crore-Rs 20 crore to prevent small pharmaceutical entrepreneurs from participating in the tender.
Pathak, after being briefed about the benefits small entrepreneurs would get after participating in the tender, assured the office-bearers that small entrepreneurs would now participate in the tender process for procurement of government medicines, said Seth.
The officer-bearers also told the Deputy CM that due to the laid back attitude of UP Medical Supply Corporation officials, an organization authorized for the purchase of government medicines, the pharmaceutical industry of Uttar Pradesh has collapsed, whereas previously the pharmaceutical industry used to be the leader.
"By making some changes in the rules of drug procurement, we can not only promote small scale pharmaceutical industry, but in the present budget itself, we can even distribute free medicines to needy patients and even increase the resources. To discourage small-scale drug makers in tenders, an annual turnover of Rs 5-Rs 20 crore or more is being imposed. Also, the quality of medicines is being termed poor by the officials, and it is claimed that small scale entrepreneurs are unable to supply medicines on time. This creates a shortage of medicines in the hospitals”, Seth said.
“They (officials) argue that quality medicines are only available in big units. The quality of medicines has nothing to do with the turnover. Only those producers are eligible to participate in the tender process, to whom the drug controller department issues certificates of performance, capacity and non-conviction," Seth further said.
The drug controller department collects samples of medicines from the market from time to time, and whose samples fail, are tried in court. As such an entrepreneur does not get a certificate of non-conviction. In such a situation, to say that small units will not be able to meet the quality standards is wrong. After the changes made by WHO in the Drug and Cosmetic Act in the year 2005, the infrastructure is the same in all types of units. Therefore, it is wrong to say that the medicines of small scale industries lack quality. No case of death has been reported anywhere in the country till date after consuming small scale medicine, Seth added