The chairman of the Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association (public relationssub committee) KD Vora said that the provisional duty would be applicable onall metronidazole imports priced below Rs 519 per kg. This is as per anotification issued by the directorate general of anti-dumping and alliedduties, an IDMA press release said.

Detailed investigations by the anti-dumping cell revealed that the normalvalue of metronidazole is $10.35 per kg and the dumping margin was found tobe 47.85 per cent or $3.35 per kg.

The major beneficiary of the government's move would be Aarti Drugs (with acapacity of 800 MT per annum), besides Mumbai-based companies UnichemLaboratories and JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals. The imposition of theanti-dumping duty could translate into an improvement in the bottomline ofthese players, the release added.

Chinese metronidazole had been flooding the Indian market for almost twoyears and had apparently forced the closure of two manufacturers AdventPharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd and Aarey Drugs and Pharmaceutical. Aarti Drugsdirector Harshit Savla said that the average price of metronidazole was Rs350 per kg last year and is expected to rise significantly after theimposition of the anti-dumping duty.

Chinese dumping had brought down metronidazole prices from $10 per kg to $5per kg, within four-five years. With a CIF price of $5 per kg and a 38.5 percent import duty, the landed cost of Chinese metronidazole was Rs 310 per kgwhich no Indian manufacturer could even dream of matching.

Meanwhile, the IDMA also said that budget 2000-2001 has been adisappointment for the pharma industry. The association claimed that thegovernment's well-stated intentions to support high-risk knowledge-basedindustries like pharma, biotechnology etc, do not appear to be backed byappropriate actions in the budget.

Besides, the benefit of exemptions of profits earned from exports underSection 80 HHC has been diluted. "This is likley to mainly affect Indianpharma companies which derive substantial income from exports and may havesome impact on their R&D investments in the long-term," it added.