Christian factory produces low–cost drugs for the poor

Chennai: A Church sponsored pharmaceutical factory is producing a drug costing one fifth of the market price, giving hopes to high blood pressure patients in the country.

A strip of ten tablets of Nifedipine, a drug used
to treat high blood pressure, costs in the country, at its market price, the equivalent of Rs.75 (US$1.70) but a church–sponsored pharmaceutical factory is providing the same product at a fifth of the price to charitable and government hospitals, Ecumenical News International (ENI) reported.

"We are producing high quality essential drugs and selling them at cost price to make them affordable to the poorer sections of society," said Moses P. Manohar, director of the Inter–Church Service Association, which is responsible for the trust that runs the factory.