The Prime Minister's Task Force on Pharmaceuticals, mandated to explore various options other than price control for making available life saving drugs at reasonable prices, is likely to submit its report by month end.
Headed by Dr. Pronab Sen, Principal Advisor (PP), Planning Commission, the task force has completed industry consultations and is in the process of preparing the draft report. According to sources, the task force has planned a series of internal meetings with the concerned ministries before finalising the report. The task force has sought time upto August 31, 2005 to be ready with the report.
The task force report has become crucial to the industry as its recommendations could decide the fate of the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) and its continuance under the Essential Commodities Act. With the ministry of consumer affairs itself proposing to scrap Essential Commodities Act, DPCO has to come under an appropriate law. The government needs to find a solution that can satisfy the criterion put forward by the Supreme Court (to bring all essential drugs under price control) while granting stay on the new DPCO proposed under the Pharmaceutical Policy 2002. A new price monitoring system has also become essential in the wake of the product patent regime, which has opened the doors for high priced patented products in Indian markets.
Industry associations like Indian Drugs Manufacturers Association (IDMA), Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industries –SSI (CIPI), various non-governmental-organisations etc. had all presented their views before the committee during the last month. The industry associations had strongly opposed several provisions suggested by the task force in its consultation paper.
The Task Force had in its previous meetings opined that the existence of DPCO under the Essential Commodities Act cannot be justified as it is meant for controlling the prices of commodities like rice, wheat, coal etc. and does not suit medicines. It had also noted that an effective monitoring of essential drug prices is not possible under the current system, as it would require a huge administrative system. The committee is known to be in favour of tracking the prices of medicines at various levels and strengthen the monitoring mechanism for effective intervention.