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The pharmaceutical manufacturers in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu are grumbling that the marketing companies in the south are not creating a supporting business relationship with the local manufacturing units for agreement for their supplies rather they like to have business dealings with companies in Pondicherry and Chennai.
According to pharma industry sources in Madurai, the manufacturing companies are mostly located in three districts, Madurai, Dindukkal and Theni. For administration purposes, the drug control department has formed two zones, Madurai North and Madurai South, by including these three districts where almost all the companies have been established. Earlier, Madurai was the hub of pharmaceuticals in south Tamil Nadu, but today it has lost the glory in the business domain although quality products are made by all. “Our aim is to develop Madurai further as a pharmaceutical destination in south India and we are working for it”, says M Lekshmanan, managing partner of Pharamfabrikon, a leading pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Madurai.
A Gunasekharan, one of the directors of a company who is in-charge of the marketing division of his company working in Dindukkal said there are over 100 marketers operating their businesses in the southern districts, but they opt for companies in Pondicherry and Chennai for production purposes. He said the reasons for opting companies in these regions may be mainly because of monetary benefits and they assume that the capacities of the plants in Madurai are poor. Thirdly, most of the companies in Madurai and Dindukkal are single-product manufacturers and dealers of medical oxygen. However, these companies can also undertake contract manufacturing agreements for several medicinal products, but the marketing companies are not approaching them, he added.
While talking to Pharmabiz, A Kannan, president of the Pharmaceutical Association of Marketers and Manufacturers (PAMM) said, “It happens because of the mindset of the business people. We want to do our business and we want a good market for our products. If a product is manufactured in Pondicherry or in Chennai it will have good marketing. The business depends on the credibility of the company’s name and the popularity of the manufacturer. Quality wise, all the companies in the south are extraordinarily good that we agree, but moving of products depends on popular companies and the places they locate.”
He further said good perfumes are available in our markets everywhere, but perfumes coming from gulf countries will have high demand. It happens because of the mind-set of the people which is a crucial factor in the marketing business.
Meanwhile, MD Varadarajan, president of the Tamil Nadu Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, (TN PMA), an association of small scale pharma units, said he will call a joint meeting of marketing companies and Madurai pharma entrepreneurs and solve the issue to help the companies in the south.
The chairman of the TN IDMA, J Jayaseelan has responded that IDMA will also discuss the issue and the association is always ready to help all the pharma entrepreneurs in the state irrespective of big or small.
The assistant drug controller of Madura zone, M Ravichandran, said the industry can make a proposal to the government and to their associations for setting up a cluster model pharma park in Madurai which will support the industry to grow. He said there are around 40 manufacturing units including formulations, APIs and medical oxygen plants in the southern districts. The major market for the companies includes 15 districts of Tamil Nadu and seven districts of Kerala apart from foreign countries.
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