Industrial Visit to East India Pharmaceutical Works Limited, Sarsuna, Kolkata

an industrial visit was organized to East India Pharmaceutical Works Limited, Sarsuna, Kolkata for the students of BBA, Besc by the Director General, Dr. Suman Mukherjee. A team of 40 students were led by Prof. Jayjit Chakraborty along with seven other faculty members of the department. The students were taken to the site by college, maintaining all the Covid protocols. East India Pharmaceutical Works Limited produced its first drug as long ago as 1936. Since then its activities are aligned to the basic values of manufacturing drugs of highest quality. The Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Division of EIPW Ltd. at Sarsuna is positioned at the southern precincts of Kolkata over a wide sprawling greenery. The factory, spread over separate manufacturing blocks, is equipped with most modern state-of-the-art equipment and machinery. This factory also hosts our entire research and development team, hence is a centre for all our innovation. One of the bulk drug units of EIPW Ltd. is located in a serene environment at the southern outskirts of Kolkata. The main synthetic Drugs plant is situated at Durgapur, (170 Kms from Kolkata) amidst a picturesque eco-friendly surrounding. The Mission of East India Company is to provide thoroughly researched, superior quality and cost effective “medicines for millions”. To achieve customer and employee satisfaction and manage their operations with high concerns for safety and environment. They Vision to increase their global presence, continuously develop advance formulations through precise R&D, along with making medication more and more affordable to people and also exploring new-age, futuristic opportunities in the health care industry.Mr. Debarshi Duttagupta, The Managing Director of the Company welcomed and directed us through the entire visit. The expert team of the industry consists of- Mr. Anjan Mukherjee, the Head Caption of the industry; Dr. Goyal, the Head of Quality Control; Mr. Abhijeet Mitra, the Head of Maintenance; Mr. Sandip Biswas, the Head of Labour Welfare Officer; Mr. Jayanta Basu, the Head of Marketing Head. The company is leading from 60-70 years and managing the 3^rd generation is quite challenging. They are most regulated by Schedule M & T of the Drugs & Cosmetic Act. They have FDA certification with gold standards. They have a big cultural wing; blood donation camps are held and Vishwakarma puja is celebrated with full enthusiasm. They believe in employee satisfaction being the key factor. The branch of Sarsuna have around 300 – 325 employees. Not even a single strike is held in the company, the MD personally sits with the union four times a year to keep up the concerns. The greenery of the environment is taken care of along with three ponds, one of them have a turtle which is 70years old. The company keeps up with upgradation as per 2 years ahead of time, earlier they used machines that were handled manually but now they have upgraded to AI driven machines which requires minimum one person to handle. The board sees to it that- A. The company grows according to the plan; B. Everyone in the company is happy and growing. The operations include 50% of the manufacturing of the pharmaceutical plant and 50% of the sales. 800 sales persons work under Mr. Jayanta Basu for the Sales of the formulation unit. They believe that their biggest investment is in people. Though The company lacks a proper HR department. Their best-selling products are- Pyrigesic 650, Pyrigesic 1000, Pyrigesic MR, Locula (10%, 20%, 30%), Tisol-200, URJ (ayurvedic product), Vitazyme. They have come up with herbal body oils- Sandalite body oil. They are in the process of launching mosquito repellent with eucalyptus oils. Pyrigesic 1000, is the no. 1 paracetamol brand in India and is only produced in the Sarsuna factory. The Doll House consists of the miniature versions of the machines like CO-01 (machine for coating tablets), HU-03 (stability chambers), T-01 (tablet machines), L-02 (fridge dryer), C-01 (centrifuge research), DT-01 (for creating the disintegrate).The Lab where HP analysis of the samples as per the standard set, Chromatology, Spectrophotometer, Infrared- spectroscope, leak test, pH meter, filter is done. Dr. P Mallik looks after the Medical Clinic of the company.The Management & Information Systems, the IT department with self-developed ERP and Oracle.

The dry labs are used for storing instruments and wet labs are used for doing the research. The new labs- QC (microbiology), led by Dr. Bhattacharya- head of the RM. They have the quality control system, air handling units to filter the air, GLP certification, ABCD classification of chambers. They check the pathogens and bacterial of the drugs, also have a sterilization room. The lab has 4 chemists & 3 assistants. The finished products are kept as samples till expiry for each and every batch of medicines produced. QR code is used in packaging’s to escape the spurious products. Small changes are made in the packaging of the product continuously to avoid spurious products. Modular form is used for energy conservation.The DM water plant, have water conductivity less than 2 microns, this is the anti-mineralised water used in injections. The Quality Assurance Department, ensures that each product passes through the rinsing machine to the filling & sealing area to labelling & packaging area and finally to the collating & case packing. After the packaging, random product is taken for sampling before it is launched in the market, to assure the quality.The Oral Solid Dosage Formulations Department, the only department for oral solid dosage in East Bengal. This department has the purest form of air (3.5micron) and is ensured that there is zero contamination, GI panels is used for the construction of this department, Epoxy floor to avoid dust. White tablets are produced here. The Raw Material Day Store, stores the approved material, the primary & secondary packaging material, uni-flow system for transporting the medicines from one room to other is used, hepa filter is used for air wash. The raw materials passes through granules quarantine; to compression (where man entry & material entry is from different gates) for differential air pressure (single rotary & double rotary); from there it is passed to quality control (inspection room); to IPQC room (in process quality control), then we get the finished product. All the departments of the industry consume electricity of around Rs. 17-18 lakhs per month. The supply of the medicines is all over India and that is done in the brand name itself. The generic supply is made to all the government-based supplies. The visit of the industry was tried to be done within 3 – 4 hours covering all the aspects of productions, marketing, operations and logistics. The industrial visit was beneficial for the students as it brought clarity to important management concepts, as students practical experience first-hand how these concepts are put into action. It bridges the gap between classroom theoretical training and practical learning in a real-life environment. It brings out an opportunity to identify the student’s prospective area of work. It enhances their interpersonal skill and get to see the best practices opted by companies for similar work.