The Hindu Business Line : Paswan asks GoM to take final call on pharma policy

Mumbai, Jan. 25 With no final word yet on the prospective pharmaceutical policy, despite it being referred to the Group of Ministers two years ago – the Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, has written to the GoM seeking some finality.

In a letter to the GoM about a fortnight ago, the Minister has asked for a meeting to take a final view on the draft pharmaceutical policy, a Government source familiar with the development told Business Line.

The draft pharmaceutical policy has been hanging fire for several years now, and the Union Cabinet had referred the draft to the GoM in January 2007. The group has had four meetings since.

Headed by the Union Food and Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, the GoM was to help streamline the draft pharma policy including resolving the contentious issue of medicine pricing. A final call from the GoM would help give the Centre and the industry a direction on the issue, in this election year, the official said.

In the past, governments have steadily reduced the span of price control being exercised on medicines, besides morphing their role from controlling prices to monitoring them. About 74 from the list of 354 essential medicines are under price control.

But the present Government has been in favour of price control over all 354 drugs, in an effort to make medicines affordable, much to the chagrin of the pharmaceutical industry.

The industry has been of the view that the Government stick with monitoring drugs, rather than actively controlling them. Making medicines affordable and accessible, they argue, is through formalised improved procurement and better delivery channels to help give medicines to people who need them.

Pharma industry executives agree that price control is one of the biggest challenges confronting them in the local market, and the manner in which the Government has been going about price control is “irrational”, they complain.

“When they (Government) find that raw material prices keep galloping they do not give you the increase in the price of the finished product. But when it comes down, they immediately bring it down. Earlier on non-price controlled drugs you were allowed to a maximum of 20 per cent increase. Now they have just arbitrarily brought it down to 10 per cent,” said a top pharma industry representative, summing up his industry’s concern.

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