|
 Karnataka Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers’ Association (KDPMA) has now elected its new office bearers committee for the term 2025 to 2027. Jatish N Sheth, director, Srushti Pharmaceuticals is the president of the association. Jatish has taken over from Manoj Palrecha who held the post of president from 2023- 2025. In fact, in his earlier term Jatish was co-chairman-nominated, KDPMA and he continues to serve as the secretary general, Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry (CIPI).
The other members of the KDPMA committee are SK Shetty, secretary who serves as managing director, Nemus Pharmaceuticals, Tejasvi Bhat, joint secretary is the director, Ce-Chem Pharmaceuticals and Mukesh Punmiya, treasurer is the chairman, Invision Pharma.
Taking on the mantle as president KDPMA, Jatish told Pharmabiz that the focus areas would be to further strengthen the industry in Karnataka which demonstrates high adherence to robust quality systems and regulatory compliance.
“In fact, Karnataka was among the few states in the country to be complaint to Schedule M or the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) way back in 1988 when it was introduced. Now with an amendment to it in June 2023, our industry in the state is working towards being well-prepared to meet the requirements of the revised Schedule M guidelines by the year end which is the stipulated deadline,” he added.
The factors that favour Karnataka pharma to be well equipped to achieve this are its advanced established pharmaceutical production and related infrastructure, proactive engagement with regulatory bodies, and a higher proportion of facilities already aligned with current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP). Besides the clearances from global regulatory agencies like the US FDA, EMA (European Medicines Agency), MHRA, UK, Therapeutic Group Administration (TGA) Australia, Health Canada, MCC (South Africa), ANVISA (Brazil), NMPA (China), NAFDAC (Nigeria), MEDSAFE (New Zealand), MHLW (Japan), HAS, (Singapore), MCAZ (Zimbabwe), SWISSMEDIC (Switzerland), and KFDA (Korea), to name a few gives it the added advantage to pace up the compliance pathway, noted Jatish.
We are also focused on improving the ease of doing business in Karnataka and collaborating with the state department of industries & commerce and the state food and drug administration (FDA) to achieve this objective, stated the newly appointed KDPMA president.
Another task on hand is to improve on Karnataka’s market share from the current 6 percent to a possible 10 percent, which is achievable, going by the forte of manufacturers here, he said.
Karnataka pharma is well entrenched in contract manufacture catering to the stringent requirements of the 10-top global pharma majors. Besides the state chips in approximately 10% to India’s pharmaceutical exports pegged at US$ 30 billion, said Jatish.
|