Nepal Drug Limited to produce 20 additional medicines

Kathmandu / Jan 13: The Nepal Drug Limited (NDL) has planned to produce an additional 20 types of medicine categorized under 98 sorts of drugs for free distribution to the people.

The NDL is for producing the additional drugs on its own. The NDL will produce the medicine and provide it to the government, according to General Manager at NDL, Kailash Kumar Paneru.

Paneru further informed that they are working actively after Prime Minister Dahal’s direction to collect resources with the work plan of trade.

Even the Ministry for Industry and the company have signed an agreement for commercial sustainability and capacity building of NDL.

The NDL used to produce 146 types of medicines, which gradually declined to nine types and now only one- CETAMOL.

Along with investment, diversity in production is stressed by the company.

However, lagging behind in fierce market competition and technological backwardness are hindrances to the performance of government run companies.

General Manager Paneru said that Prime Minister Dahal’s direction to emerge in the competitive market with a work plan would help intensify work. “For now, the company can compete with some products. But, capacity building of NDL is essential to expand production,” he said.

Stating that the Limited was ready to provide quality medicines, Paneru mentioned that drugs would be sold and distributed collaborating with all local levels of the country. The company has increased production and its sales as compared to the past. It has become successful to sell drugs worth Rs 10.5 million last month alone.

NDL Chairperson Yagya Prasad Neupane shared that a plan was made with an objective of producing 98 types of drugs which are provided to the people by the government.

The company has also planned to utilize its land for income generation. It wants to run a medical hub in a commercial manner and expand production capacity to make the drug industry competitive.

According to the Trade and Export Promotion Centre, medicine-related products worth Rs 16.80 billion were imported in five months of the current fiscal year, 2080/81 BS.RSS