IMPCOPS to apply for manufacturing licences for 150 Ayush drugs, signs agreement with north contractors for raw drugs
02-Dec-19 14:05:03
The Indian Medical Practitioners Cooperative Pharmacy & Stores Ltd (IMPCOPS) in Chennai is gearing up to apply for 150 manufacturing licences for various traditional medicines of Siddha, Ayurveda and Unani streams in December this year. Agreements have been signed with north Indian medicinal plant cultivators and contractors for procuring raw drugs.
On getting new licences, the number of traditional medicines in the product bag of IMPCOPS will increase to 936. Currently, the cooperative manufacturing company produces 750 kinds of drugs, and recently obtained licences for manufacturing 36 Ayurveda products. “Once the SLA of the ISM department grants 150 licences additionally, the total number of medicines manufactured in IMPCOPS will increase to 936,” said Dr S Kannan, president of the society.
The company manufactures nearly 5 lakh kilograms of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani drugs every year. Last year’s turnover of the company was Rs.42 crore. The EC meeting held in last week decided to increase the production and sale of medicines to seven lakhs in next six months in order to scale up the revenue to Rs.70 crore, he told Pharmabiz.
Further, the company wants to expand its market to north and eastern parts of the country in the coming years. Medicines are now marketed, besides Tamil Nadu, in Karnataka, Telengana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Pondicherry. Now it wants to open marketing divisions in New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Along with traditional medicines, from 2020 onwards IMPCOPS will focus on cosmetic items also. Production of shampoo and hair-oil are in the pipeline.
Meanwhile, the management of the 75 years old society decided to postpone the celebration of the platinum jubilee of IMPCOPS to February next year. It was earlier decided to hold the program in September 2019 with a series of programs. Since the ongoing construction of the Platinum Jubilee Building has not completed, the program is now postponed to February 2020. Jubilee celebration will be coupled with the inauguration of the double storey building.
Dr. Kannan said on completion of the 30,000 sq.ft building, all production activities will be shifted to the new facility and the old building will be converted into ‘Kalvam Section’ (a division for mechanised grinding of raw drugs). Production, packaging, labeling and R&D are the segments of operations scheduled to be held in the new facility. In addition to this, an OTC section and a library will be set up in the new building. The company has signed agreements with contractors in north India for procuring raw drugs. Several herbs and other raw drugs are collected from Himachal Pradesh, he added.
The multi-state cooperative society was established in the year 1944 by a group of allopathic and Indian medicine doctors. At the time of its origin, the Society manufactured only 50 kinds of Siddha and Ayurveda drugs in commercial scale.