Welcome to Pharma Utility, a magazine dedicated to news and services in the
Indian pharmaceutical industry.
CEO- QbD International United Nations Advisor
Covid 19 – Impact & New Normal for Pharma Industry
The Pharmaceutical Industry is working tirelessly for Humanity safety. Hence our Pharmaceutical Industry is moving ahead with great confidence, as usual, to manufacture various Pharmaceutical products as well as Research & Development activities to develop the Vaccines & other products to combat the Covid 19 crisis.
NEW NORMAL at work place “RISK BASED ASSESSMENTS” for Personnel Protection:
Since we are leaning more & more about new Corona 19 Virus every day, the information shared here may get updated based on experience & Global Experts advice. E.g. CDC USA & WHO has slightly different recommendations to use the masks or face shields as well as social distancing norms too.
Flexible & Remote working:
— prefer scattered work hours
— offer flexibility of working
— push for working from home and other remote locations
As such The Pharmaceutical Industry does take very good care to avoid cross contaminations as part of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). But now keeping in mind seriousness of virus spread, the Pharmaceutical Industry has to take precautions to avoid transmission & spread during travel in buses, entry & exit procedures, change rooms, avoid hand touch to doors, handles etc. throughout the manufacturing operations at site.
Various operations like below have to be kept in mind:
■ Supply chain of all input materials & finished products.
■ Cleaning & sanitising of Input Materials containers.
■ Precautions during storage in warehouse.
■ Precautions during sampling & testing.
■ Necessary care during issue of Input Materials.
■ Precautions while handling input materials during manufacturing operations ■ Sanitisation of all the areas.
■ Social Distancing right from travel in Co. buses , entry & exit procedures, during Mfg., / Packaging / Testing operations etc. in the plant.
As per WHO, common major steps to protect against the infection are:
■ Social distancing
■ Use of Masks / Face- Shields
■ Use of Gloves
■ Frequent Washing of Hands & or Sanitisation with proper sanitisers containing min. 70% to 75% Iso – Propyl Alcohol or Ethyl Alcohol ■ Segregation of staff in essential & non-essential at manufacturing site. ■ Non-essential staff to work from home.
■ Essential staff are the ones who are required to work in person at manufacturing site.
Important is SOP generations & trainings for all above activities to take all necessary steps / precautions during manufacturing & testing of products to avoid contaminations, virus spread & no one enters the plant with the Covid 19 infection.
Impact of Covid-19 on larger Indian as well as Multinational players to be relatively limited. API supplies from China for Indian customers have gradually resumed with the Drug Controller General of India reaching out to companies to extend logistics support to airlift critical APIs from China. Manufacturing facilities continue to operate with lower workforce and at lower utilization, companies have faced disruptions in outbound logistics and in the movement of raw materials and shipments within the country.
The Pharmaceutical Industry is continuing to manufacture medicines for well-being of humanity. The Pharmaceutical Industry is in operation to save human lives. Therefore it is essential to take all necessary precautions to take care of themselves as well as others surrounding. Great opportunities to Innovate, Technology based systems to speed up activities in R & D of new product development.
Our Prime Minister Respected Shri Narendra Modi had mentioned “India is Pharmacy of the World”. The Indian Pharma Industry has lived up to Prime Minister’s expectations & making every effort possible to supply the Quality products to The World. Government of India has supported The Indian Pharma Industry in Covid 19 crisis, by way of “Promotion of Bulk drugs Parks” with financial support of 3000 Crore Rupees in next 5 years. Indian Government has also initiated “Production linked scheme to promote domestic manufacturing of Bulk drugs & Intermediates” based on “Atmanirbhar Bharat” call by our Prime Minister Respected Shri Narendra Modi.