With the Centre's stand on the need to expand the span of price monitoring of drugs, the prospects of adopting the Pharma Policy 2002 and the subsequent DPCO are quite bleak. The turns and twists in the government stand are also indicative of the future steps the government may take with regard to the appeal it had filed in the Supreme Court against the Karnataka High Court decision to scrap the Pharma Policy 2002.
According to official sources, there has been no directive from the union minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers to re-work the Pharma Policy. "The minister is known to have assured the Rajya Sabha that the government would examine all possibilities of reviewing the pharma policy. But he is yet to give any official instruction. The minister seems to be assessing the situation," they say.
According to them, the government has only one option before it if it decides to review the pharma policy. "The Supreme Court has already given us the broad contour of the policy it supports. Both the SC and the Karnataka High Court have stressed the need for price control on essential (life saving) drugs. If the government decides to review the policy, it will have to abide by the standing instructions of the SC and submit the policy thus reviewed before the court. The government can also withdraw the SLP on the grounds that the instructions from the Apex Court have been fulfilled", they explained.
The officials also informed that the government does not intend to seek a date in the Supreme Court for the final hearing of the case under the present conditions.
Meanwhile, the minister is known not to be spending too much time on understanding the complexities of the court case. He, instead, is attempting for bringing in sort of blanket monitoring of drug prices to ensure fair pricing system it is learnt.
According to sources close to the minister, he is exploring the feasibility of getting a voluntary declaration from the companies that the MRP printed by them are not unreasonable and the profit margins are not more than 150 per cent of the ex-factory cost. They feel that such a declaration, which can be counterchecked/verified by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), may bring in the much-needed self discipline in the drug pricing sector. They feel that such a move can automatically bring down the prices of drugs without going into legal complications.