Pharma Sector Flags Shortage Of Packaging Materials, Transport

Chennai, The pharma sector in the country has been hit by shortage of workforce, packaging materials and transport owing to the COVID-19 lockdown, its apex body said, appealing to the government to allow functioning of supporting industry to ensure that the supply chain is not disrupted. Having been exempted from the nation-wide lockdown as it came under essential services, the sector has accorded priority to meet the domestic requirements during the current scenario, according to office-bearers of the nearly 1,000 member strong Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA). However, the drug manufacturers have been managing to keep the operations going despite these problems, they said. IDMA Chairman J Jayaseelan said the absence of supportive industry such as units supplying packaging materials had made matters worse for the pharmaceutical companies. Vice-Chairman of the association T Sathish said they were managing with available raw material and primary packaging material. “We are facing a shortage of packaging material due to the nationwide lockdown and closure of several industries. Our members spread across the country are operating the production units with 40 percent workforce,” Sathish said. Though it was available to some extent locally, the bulk of the packaging material is sourced from Mumbai for the whole industry across the country and with the lockdown entering the 20th day on Monday, the pharma companies are finding it difficult to procure it. The firms were also finding it difficult to freely ship the merchandise to other states owing to closure of borders besides being hit by reduction in workforce. “We can”t complain about shortage of material at this juncture because we come under the Essentials Services Maintenance Act. Besides, the government is proactive in helping us,” Sathish said, indicating that the pharmaceutical industry was committed to deliver. Movement of injectable insulin has also been hit due to lack of transport with cold storage facilities. “This again is another challenge before us. There is no shortage of insulin. This needs to be transported in cold storage and no such facility is available due to the ongoing lockdown. This is the reason why we are insisting upon the functioning of support industry,” Jayaseelan said. “People are under the impression that we have our own fleet of vehicles to transport medicines. We need the courier to ship our products. There is also an acute shortage of unskilled manpower,” he added. Urging the government to permit the supporting industry to function to ensure the supply chain was not disrupted, he said the companies were unable to even obtain bottles caps. “Post lockdown, we may face several other challenges such as paying salaries to our entire workforce, medical representatives who have remained indoors …,” he added.-Outlook India