The state government of Himachal Pradesh has invited pharma industry stakeholders to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set up their bulk drug manufacturing units in the proposed bulk drug park in Una, to give them the first-mover advantage.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020
Key-Points
A bulk drug, also called an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), is the key ingredient of a drug or medicine, which lends it the desired therapeutic effect or produces the intended pharmacological activity. For example, paracetamol is a bulk drug, which acts against pain.
It is mixed with binding agents or solvents to prepare the finished pharmaceutical product, i.e. a paracetamol tablet, capsule or syrup, which is consumed by the patient.
APIs are prepared from multiple reactions involving chemicals and solvents. The primary chemical or the basic raw material which undergoes reactions to form an API is called the key starting material, or KSM.
Chemical compounds formed during the intermediate stages during these reactions are called drug intermediates or DIs.