The Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilisers has come out strongly at `dilly-dallying tactics' of the Central government in not finalizing the National Pharmaceutical Policy 2006, so far.
Expressing its anguish over the `insensitivity of the Government on such an important policy which forms the basis for implementation of various vital issues,' the Committee hoped that all out efforts would be made by the Government to finalise the much delayed policy.
The 20th report of the Standing Committee, titled `Availability and Price Management of Drugs and Pharmaceuticals' was submitted to the Government and tabled in the Parliament sometime before the second meeting of the Group of Ministers on September 12. The committee, headed by Anant Gangaram Geete had some harsh observations on the Government delay in finalising the policy.
The Committee noted that their Seventh Report on 'Availability and Price Management of Drugs and Pharmaceuticals' was presented to Speaker on September 28, 2005 and to Lok Sabha on November 25, 2005. Most of the important recommendations relate to finalization of new pharma policy, inclusion of essential and life saving drugs in the schedule for price control, strengthening of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, amendment to Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 1995, creation of DPCO Cells in all States, strengthening of the Drug Regulatory Mechanism in the States, Price Negotiation Mechanism for the new patented drugs, determination of ceiling price for the drugs, promotion of generic drugs, reduction of the trade margins particularly on essential and life saving drugs, dropping of hazardous and obsolete drugs from the list of scheduled drugs, raising the outlay for public health and system of pool procurement of medicines, the report said.
``The replies of the Ministry to all the aforesaid issues are inconclusive as these all are subjects to the finalization of National Pharmaceutical Policy, 2006. The Committee regret to note that even after the expiry of more than one and half year of presentation of the Report, the Ministry in their replies to almost all the recommendations have stated that recommendations of the Committee have been taken into consideration by the Government while framing draft National Pharmaceutical Policy, 2006 which was considered by the Cabinet in its meeting held on 11.01.2007,'' it observed.
The Cabinet has referred the proposed policy to a Group of Ministers (GoM). The first meeting of the GoM was held on 10.04.2007. However, no time frame has been fixed for finalizing the policy, the Committee observed.
After the presentation of the seventh report, the Department was asked to furnish Action Taken Replies by December 27, 2005, but the Department had furnished Action Taken Replies on January 25, 2006. After examining the Action Taken Replies, it was found that except some replies, the most of the replies were inconclusive. The Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals was, therefore, asked to furnish conclusive replies. The Department had finally furnished the updated replies on June 25, 2007, the report explained on how slow the Department was acting on such an important issue.
From the early 1970s, there have been efforts by the Government to implement a 'National Drug Policy' to regulate the industry. For this purpose, the Government had set up a Committee in 1974, popularly known as the 'Hathi Committee'. On the basis of the Report prepared by this Committee in 1975, the first Comprehensive Drug Policy was formulated in 1978. Subsequently, keeping in view the need, the Drug Policy was revised in 1986. In the context of liberalization of the economy and growth of the industry, the Drug Policy was modified in 1994. Subsequently a new Pharma Policy was announced by the Government in 2002. However, due to the stay order passed by the High Court of Karnataka on Public interest Litigation, this new policy has been stalled.