After remaining shut for almost a decade for not following World Health Organisation standards, Nepal Drugs Ltd has again started operations. At present, NDL has begun manufacturing oral rehydration salt (Jeevan Jal) and has aimed to gradually start production of other essential drugs that have high demand in the domestic market. NDL is also the first state-owned entity to have been revived among the seven defunct government companies that the government plans to revive. Sujan Dhungana of The Himalayan Times spoke to Robhash Kusam Subedi, general manager of NDL, to know more about the company’s future plans and marketing strategy. Excerpts

You have been assigned the responsibility to operate a previously defunct government-owned company. How challenging is this?

Obviously there are challenges to operate a firm that had remained shut for such a long period of time due to various problems. However, the main challenge I have witnessed is to develop a combined effort to run the company in a proper and successful manner. As soon as I joined office, I first spent almost a week just to learn why NDL had been shut and could not restart operation. And I found that though various attempts were made in the past to revive NDL, the effort did not receive equal contribution from all the stakeholders. The second thing I found was NDL did not have enough technical manpower to start production and its infrastructure too was outdated. Similarly, a number of machines in NDL were not compliant with the international standards. Lack of commitment from stakeholders was another setback to reopen NDL as early as possible after it was shut almost a decade back. Though the government made attempts to restart NDL earlier, there was no deadline as to when to restart the company. Thus, I will have to overcome all these challenges to make NDL successful again. My first role in NDL will be to work as a focal point for all the stakeholders and maintain coordination.

Production at NDL was shut after it could not adhere to the Good Manufacturing Practice standard of the World Health Organisation. Is the new machinery at NDL up to the WHO prescribed standards?

With the development of technology, machines available in the market today are already as per the standards that they need to comply with. It is true that NDL could not meet GMP standards before. But today we have upgraded the old machines to meet the required standard and also purchased new machines, which produce drugs as per the set international guidelines.

The revival of NDL has been seen as a move against open market policy by the private sector in the country. What is your take on this?

It is true that the government should play a regulatory role and focus more on developing an industrial environment rather than operating industries. In case of the drug industry, I believe that private pharmaceutical companies have contributed notably to bring down the import of foreign drugs. However, the government’s presence in sensitive sectors like medicines, which has direct linkage with people’s lives is necessary. The government running a drug company should not be misinterpreted as an intervention on private sector drug businesses. This is because the government’s presence in drug manufacturing is vital to ensure that no citizen has to lose their life merely because they do not have access to essential drugs. NDL is focused on delivering service rather than making profit. We will sell essential drugs at a comparatively cheaper price to increase people’s access to essential drugs. Private sector companies may not have this liberty. Similarly, access to health services has been recognised as a fundamental right of people by the constitution and the involvement of the government in production of drugs is must to effectively execute this provision of the constitution.

What will be the pricing mechanism of medicines produced by NDL?

We have not developed any concrete mechanism to fix the price of medicines. However, our products will be cheaper compared to other drugs available in the market. Cost of raw materials and operation cost are the two major factors that will be considered while fixing the price. We will fix the price of medicines in such a manner that it will meet the entire operation cost of NDL. We do not want to seek further financial assistance from the government for operation. Though our products will be comparatively cheaper it will not be too low as compared to the price of drugs manufactured by private pharmaceutical industries. For instance, we have fixed price of oral rehydration salt at nine rupees per packet while a pack of oral rehydration salt costs Rs 10 in the domestic market. In the long run, NDL also aims to develop a pricing standard to fix drug prices.

NDL has restarted operation with the production of oral rehydration salt. What are your production targets?

Oral rehydration salt has high demand in Nepal. I believe that the domestic market demands almost 100,000 packets of oral rehydration salt per day. However, NDL has the capacity to produce only 10,000 packets of oral rehydration salt at present. We have already started production capacity enhancement work. We have set a target to manufacture up to 30,000 packets of oral rehydration salt per day within September.

When will Nepal Drugs start producing other essential drugs?

It is a gradual process. We have planned to produce paracetamol after producing oral rehydration salt in full swing. It will probably start by September. Similarly, medicines like iron and metronidazole tablets have high demand in Nepal. We are planning to start production of paracetamol, metronidazole and iron tablets simultaneously immediately after the Dashain festival. We will also gradually start production of drugs like amoxicillin, cough syrups, saline water, haemodialysis fluid, penicillin and ointments, among others. As NDL had been producing more than 100 types of drugs in the past, we plan to start production of all these drugs in the long run. Meanwhile, NDL is also hiring technical human resources required for production of different drugs.

The government has been providing almost 70 types of drugs free of cost. Will NDL produce all such drugs?

NDL has the capacity to produce all drugs that the government has been providing free of cost. In fact, NDL today has the capacity to produce a majority of drugs that are available in the domestic market. Our target is to supply quality drugs at a cheaper rate.

NDL also faces challenges of competing with drugs already available in the market. What is your marketing strategy?

The first thing is that we will manufacture medicines of the best quality. We aim to make this our biggest strength. Similarly, we have comparative advantage of price as our drugs will be comparatively cheaper. We also have strong logistic department at NDL, which will lay emphasis on marketing and supply of our drugs.

Lastly, what has been the response of employees who had remained idle for the last one decade?

There are around 96 employees in NDL at present. I had received comments from numerous people that I would not get support from NDL employees who are habituated to not working. However, this has proven to be wrong. The staff at NDL are very enthusiastic towards their work. In fact, NDL employees today have said that they will not claim for bonuses unless NDL starts drug production in full swing though they are working from early morning till late night to meet our production targets.