Speaking on the occasion, Mr Ananth Kumar mentioned that the program will provide support to the Pharmaceutical industry in becoming more capable, productive and competitive. Minister said that for the common man, availability, quality and affordability of drugs and medicines is of utmost importance and the Cluster Development Program will be the key step in ensuring health security of the country.

The Minister revealed that by the end of this financial year, six Pharma Clusters are likely to come up of which three will be greenfields. Mr Ananth Kumar emphasized that these Clusters will ensure adequate testing, training and affluent treatment facilities for pharmaceuticals industry. The Minister said that the Government will also come up with the Bulk Drugs Parks and the Medical Devices Parks.

The minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers, Mr Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said that the Cluster Development Programme is in the interest of the nation as well as of the society. He said that the private sector is playing a lead role in the production of Generic medicines and this program will help in its holistic expansion.

The secretary in the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Dr VK Subburaj said that the pharmaceutical industry is growing at 14 to 15 percent per annum and is likely to touch the figure of Rs 4 lakh crore by 2020. The sector needs due attention so that the quality can be improved and cost brought down. Dr Subburaj said that some Clusters do exist already but not on scientific basis and this programme is meant to develop Clusters in a scientific manner.

The Clusters Development Programme for Pharma sector would be implemented on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) format through one time grant-in-aid to be released for creation of identified infrastructure and common facilities. The scheme is for setting up of new Clusters as well as up-gradation of existing Clusters. An amount of Rs 125 crores have been earmarked for the Central Sector Scheme for the 12th Five Year Plan.

The program is expected to come with following benefits for the industry:-

� Increase the competitiveness, easy access to standard testing facilities and value addition in the domestic pharma industry especially to SMEs through creation of common world class facilities.
� Strengthening the existing infrastructure facilities in order to make Indian Pharma industry a global leader in pharma exports.
� Reducing the cost of production by up to 20% in the clusters leading to better availability and affordability medicines in domestic market.
� To help industry meet the requirements of standards environment at a reduced cost through innovative methods of common waste management.
� Exploit the benefits arising due to optimization of resources and economies of scale.