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Draft Pharma Policy 2025 of Odisha encourages ease of doing businesses
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Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai
February 12 , 2025
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Following the ‘Make-in-Odisha Conclave 2025’ (Utkarsh Odisha), organised by the Government of Odisha on January 28 and 29 this year, the department of drugs control administration (DCA) has now submitted a Draft Pharma Policy to the government for its review and analysis, which is expected to be released in another two months, sources from the department informed.
According to sources, the draft pharmaceutical policy of the state encourages investors from across the country, aiming to create a welcoming environment for both domestic and other state investors. The policy also focuses on easing the process of establishing a pharma sector with the support of pharma MNCs and other large-scale players from all over India. The draft policy seeks to attract investment from foreign companies to set up formulation, API, medical devices and biotech companies in the state.
Prior to the Odisha Conclave, the government had formed an ‘Odisha Pharmaceutical Development Cell’ (OPDC) to make plans and strategies for developing a pharma sector in the state. The state drug controller Mamina Patnaik is the nodal officer for the Cell which has drafted the pharma policy and now submitted it to the government.
The Coordinator of the OPDC, Chandan Giri, who is a drug control officer in the headquarters in Bhubaneswar told Pharmabiz that over ten industry captains from various parts of the country attended the special summit on pharma at the conclave, and they expressed interest in investing in the pharma sector in Odisha. Similarly, large and medium level companies from north, north-east and southern part of the country are also willing to set up their units in the upcoming pharma park in Odisha. He said a special capital subsidy scheme is there in the Draft Pharma Policy.
Talking about the present scenario, Chandan said for making the draft policy the department of drug control conducted a survey about the human resources of pharma, medical devices and biotech companies in India, and it was found that about 40 per cent of the human resources of all major pharma MNCs and other companies in India are from Odisha. The Odiya people are dominating in all sectors of pharma and allied sectors. In almost all the companies, the key positions are kept by Odiya people. He said the president of Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad is from Odisha. Similarly, the plant head, marketing head, project head, governing body or policy making bodies of major manufacturing companies including multi-national companies are from Odisha. This reveals one fact that quality pharmacists or pharmacy intellectuals are supplied to other states by Odisha.
He said the OPDC collected the data for the survey mainly from alumni associations of pharmacy colleges in and out of Odisha. The alumni know where their classmates are working, and in what capacities.
When asked why there have been no positive indicators for pharma growth in all these years in the state, Chandan said, till now it depended on many factors such as policy matters, political vision, infrastructural environment and government interest. But now the state government is very much conscious about the need for strong pharmaceutical industries, especially in the aftermath of the Covid-19. Secondly, the pharma industry is unlike any other industries like the aluminium industry or steel industry or mining. It has complex procedures and requires various kinds of technical and skillful persons. Besides, the infrastructure facilities have to be suitable for formulation making.
As regards the next step for the realization of the project of a pharma park, the government has invited companies from across India and from US, UK and Canada. In the Odisha Conclave, major companies like Hetero have given assurance to the government for their investment.
It is expected that the Pharma Policy 2025 will be an industry-friendly one, encouraging ease of doing business and least regulatory compliant.
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