Pharma park to come up on FACT land in Kochi

KOCHI: The health department has initiated steps to set up a pharma park in Kochi, with an aim to bring down the skyrocketing prices of essential drugs. The plan is to set up the entity adjacent to the petrochemicals park, proposed to come up on Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited’s (FACT) land at Ambalamugal here.

Many of the by-products of petrochemicals can be used for manufacturing different types of medicines. Hence the location will be helpful for both the projects.

“The plan is to set up a pharma park where drugs to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore can be produced annually. Kerala constitute 10 per cent of the total drugs market in the country and the annual sales of drugs in the state comes to Rs 6,000 crore-8,000 crore,” sources associated with the project said.

“Manufacturing companies, mostly multinational ones, charge exorbitant prices for most of the essential drugs. If we produce it locally, we will be able to supply quality drugs to patients here at an affordable price,” he said.

The park will house four or more factories and the drugs produced will be known as “Kerala Generic”. The state government is expected to take over 600 acres belonging to FACT. It has decided to avail funds from Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB).

“The government has completed a few rounds of talks with the FACT authorities. It is learnt that the FACT demanded Rs 4 crore-5 crore per acre. FACT being a central public sector undertaking (PSU), would require the nod from the Union government to hand over the land,” an official with Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (Kinfra) said.

“The state government will have to procure the land and hand it over to us. The survey works prior to acquiring the land has been completed. Once the land is handed over to us, we can start the preliminary works on the projects,” an official with Kinfra said. Both the petrochemical and pharma parks would be set up by Kinfra. Of the 600 acres, 450 acres will be earmarked for petrochemical park and the remaining land would be used for pharma park.

There is also a plan to enhance the capacity of Kerala State Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (KSDP), the only public sector company and key manufacturers of drugs in Kerala. As of now, the KSDP produces drugs worth around Rs 40 crore a year. This would go up to Rs 150 crore once the expansion is over, KSDP officials said.