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It was incorporated in 1981. The company has four manufacturing units located at Maniktala (Kolkata), Panihati (24 Parganas West Bengal), one in Mumbai and one at Kanpur.
Most of the drugs and pharmaceutical units in India are located in Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, LIttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. The important centres are Ahmedabad, Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore, Kanpur, Kolkata,Jaipur, Mumbai, Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Pune, Rishikesh (Uttar akhand), and Vadodra. The Surgical Instruments Plant at Chennai produces different types of surgical instruments, while the Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Limited (BCPL) with four manufacturing units is the largest producer of anti-snake venom in India.
Although it is producing a large variety of drugs and is meeting 75 per cent of its requirements by indigenous products. India is importing expensive life saving drugs from Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Singapore, Spain, UK, and USA.
4. Measures to give further impetus to R & D in the drug sector:
(a) Newly developed drugs would be put outside price control for a period of 10 years;
(b) Department of Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals to set up inter-ministerial group to decide, within a set time frame, on measures to give further impetus to R & D in the drug sector; and
(c) Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to take suitable steps for the quick clearance of new drug application, especially those developed through indigenous R & D.
5. The system of price control would be operated through a single list of price-controlled drugs, selected on the basis of transparent and objective criteria as laid down in the modification in drug policy 1986.
6. In case of basic manufacture, the rate of return would be higher by four per cent over the existing rates which are 14 per cent on net worth or 22 per cent on capital employed.
7. To achieve uniformity in prices of widely used formulations there should be ceiling on prices for commonly marked standard pack-sizes of price- controlled formulations.
8. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to entrust with the task of price fixation/ revision and other related matters.
9. Government to keep a close watch on the prices of medicines which are taken out of price control.
10. A National Drug Authority to be set up to look after the quality control aspects, national use of drugs, and related matters.
11. To provide better focus to all matters relating to developing and promotion of indigenous and other systems of medicines, a separate department would be created by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.