A tough draft rule on waste water discharge standard for pharmaceutical industry in China is expected to be passed and put into practice starting from next year.

The draft rule, which was recently made open for public opinion by China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, is considered China's first unified pollution control standard targetting pharmaceutical industry after five years of preparation.

The draft sets much higher standards than an existing practice that was introduced in 2002. The standards cover six aspects of pharmaceutical production including fermenting, chemical synthesizing, refining, traditional Chinese medicine, and bio-engineering.

The new rule demands all new pharmaceutical firms strictly follow the standards in terms of their design and production, while old factories will be given a three-year period to make a transition.

This time, the draft makes some of the standards even higher than those in the United States, such as the discharge standards for COD and BOD in fermentation business.

According to Guangzhou Daily reports, this move will have the most serious impact on chemical raw material factories.

Experts with China Pharmaceutical Industry Association have warned the task of waste control is quite tough for pharmaceutical producers, especially for raw material drug enterprises. They may face a shutdown if no prompt action is taken. The association also predicted that the whole industry is likely to invest more than ten billion yuan to treat pollution and improve environmental protection.

No doubt, the new environmental protection standards have raised up the threshold and cost for raw material pharmaceutical industries. Therefore, some less competitive companies might be eliminated while the big ones will manage to keep growing, the report says.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2007)