Bringing essential drugs under control a fair policy:CII

Earlier this week,a Group of Ministers approved a proposal to bring 348 essential drugs under government control.

The proposal to bring 348 essential drugs under government control recommends a shift from cost-based to market-based pricing which will help improve the availability of such medicines,CII said today.

“CII welcomes the move by the government to make essential drugs more affordable and accessible to the society. The new policy recommends a shift from cost based to market based pricing which is a fair approach and it will help improve the availability of essential medicines,” CII National Committee on Pharmaceuticals Chairman Arun Sawhney said in a statement.

Earlier this week,a Group of Ministers (GoM) approved a proposal to bring 348 essential drugs under government control.

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While the industry welcomes this move,it would also be pertinent to note that the proposed policy will expand the span of price control to around 30 per cent of the domestic pharmaceutical market and impact revenues of the industry which is already facing increased input costs,inflation and a variety of regulatory challenges,he added.

“CII is hopeful that the government would extend some exemptions proposed in the draft National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy 2011 by the Department of Pharmaceuticals,” Sawhney said.

At present,the government through the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA),controls prices of 74 bulk drugs and their formulations.

Fertilisers and Chemicals Minister Srikant Jena had said the GoM had arrived at a consensus on the option which entails the use of weighted average prices for all the drugs which have a market-share of more than one per cent.

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Now the recommendations of GoM will go to the Cabinet and the Cabinet will take the final view on the matter.