Drug, medical device cos operate with 50% capacity utilisation

There seems to be some breather for the country as drug and medical device manufacturing companies start to operate with 40-50% capacity utilisation. This comes at a time when these plants face disruptions on account of an interrupted supply chain of key raw materials and packaging, as well as employee commuting problems due to the national lockdown.

“Companies are limping back to a limited capacity in some areas, with 30-40% of pre-lockdown production levels and 20-30% for dispatch levels. Units at containment and sealed areas are effectively shut as movement of workers and vehicles has stopped. Logistics is improving slowly,” said Rajiv Nath, forum coordinator of Association of Indian Medical Device Industry.

Meanwhile, the pharma companies are worried as the prices of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) have increased with delays in imports.