Industries and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao on Thursday urged pharma firms producing drugs and intermediates that are not in immediate demand to explore possibilities of either cutting down production or help in producing drugs and other products required to fight coronavirus.
With a large requirement of sodium hypochlorite, bleaching powder and hand sanitisers, he appealed to the companies to supply the same to the State government under their corporate social responsibility initiatives, said an official release on the meeting Mr. Rao had with representatives of various pharma and bulk drug manufacturing units in the State.
At the meeting at Pragathi Bhavan in which Industries and IT secretary Jayesh Ranjan and director Life Sciences Shakti Nagappan participated, the Minister said that the State government has recognised pharma industry as an essential service.
He inquired about the current production capacities of various life saving medicines required to fight the pandemic and urged the companies to ensure they continue to produce these at full capacity.
Appreciating the key role the pharma industry was playing in the fight against the pandemic, Mr. Rao said that the pharma sector in Telangana not only produced life saving medicines for the domestic market but also exported to many countries. He urged the industry representatives to ensure their employees’ health and wellbeing was taken care of.
