Airports set to have special pharma zones

New Delhi: The Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad international airports will soon have special infrastructure to handle export and import of medicines.
The cities will get pharmaceutical zones that will be equipped with storage and cold-chain facilities, which would preserve the quality of medicines, an official in the ministry of health & family welfare said.
"The design for establishing the first three pharmaceutical zones has been prepared. Besides storage and transportation, these zones will have drug-testing facilities to ensure quality," Dr Surinder Singh, the Drug Controller General of India, told ET.
According to the health ministry, the infrastructure at the three airports will be ready by the end of 2009.
Each zone will have a good manufacturing practice-compliant centre and facilities to test materials during transit in controlled conditions. "There will be separate facilities for export, import, sampling and for vaccines," Dr Singh added.
The infrastructure is being designed by the health ministry, which will also provide technical support, besides training staff in the zones, the official, requesting anonymity, said. The ministry will, however, not invest in the project, he said.
According to Dr Singh, the investments will come from the airports. They will charge a fee to pharmaceutical companies to recover their investment.
18/12/08 Sushmi Dey/Economic Times

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Categories: Airports Dec 2008