Kathmandu, May 1

Nepal Drugs Ltd (NDL) — the government firm that remained shut for the last seven years — will finally restart producing medicines from next week.

However, NDL’s production of drugs will be limited to Jeevan Jal for a certain time and the company would begin production of various other drugs very soon, informed Robus Subedi, the general manager of NDL.

“We have set up majority of technologies and machines for production of different drugs and the existing machines and equipment in NDL have already been upgraded,” Subedi said, adding that NDL will resume its operation by producing Jeevan Jal from next week.

According to him, NDL will produce almost half a million packets of Jeevan Jal within the first four months.

Set up over four decades ago, NDL was shut in 2010 after it was unable to maintain the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standard of World Health Organisation (WHO). However, Ministry of Industry (MoI) had initiated a campaign to revive various defunct government industries from the beginning of fiscal year 2016-17, under which the ministry had revived NDL in September last year.

After successful production of Jeevan Jal, Subedi informed that NDL will gradually start production of eight variants of drugs. While Subedi said that ND Cetamol is slated to be the second line of drugs to be produced from the government-owned pharmaceutical company, it is preparing to start producing drugs like iron tablets, Amoxicillin, Cufhist, Cufnas, Alazol and Amgit within a few months.

NDL plans to produce almost 120 types of drugs in the long-run.

“We have upgraded most of the machines and equipment to meet the GMP standards of WHO and will gradually upgrade all the machines to ensure quality in our production,” Subedi added.

Earlier in September, the government had announced to provide loan of Rs 146.5 million to reopen NDL under the GMP.

The revival of NDL is believed to increase competitiveness in the country’s drug market, which is currently governed completely by the private sector.

As government-produced drugs are comparatively cheaper, revival of NDL is also expected to control arbitrary drug pricing and maintain uniformity in the price of essential drugs.

Meanwhile, MoI is also doing the necessary homework to reopen various other public industries like Birgunj Sugar Factory, Hetauda Textile Factory, Gorakhkali Rubber Udhyog Ltd, Butwal Dhago Karkhana Ltd, Nepal Metal Company, Agriculture Equipment Factory Ltd and Nepal Oriental Magnesite Industry, which are now shut, in the Public-Private Partnership model.