The Drugs and Cosmetics (amendment) Bill 2007, seeking to establish the Central Drugs Authority (CDA), is likely to be passed in the monsoon session of the Parliament as the standing committee examining the same is expected to submit its report in the second half of May.
Though the Bill was expected to come up for the passage during the current Budget session of the House, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare headed by Amar Singh is yet to finalise its report. The panel is learnt to be in the final stages of drafting the recommendations and is likely to take views of Dr R A Mashelkar who first suggested the formation of a national authority to streamline the pharmaceutical sector before finalising it. However, the budget session is slated to be over early in May.
``The committee will submit the report any time after May 15, as of now. We hope that the Bill then be passed during the monsoon session of the Parliament itself,'' said an official from the health ministry. Once the bill is passed, it will not take much time to begin the implementation of the same as the CDSCO was gearing up for the same, he said.
The upcoming Food and Drugs Bhavan, which will be the seat for the new CDA regime, is also getting ready and sufficient facilities were being put up in view of the formation of the CDA. Besides, the placement of staff and other technicalities were also being simultaneously discussed so that delay could be avoided once the bill gets the nod of the House, the official said.
The panel, which is also examining the Clinical Establishments Bill, had extensive deliberations already with a number of associations, officials, NGOs and other stakeholders by holding several rounds of meetings in different places in the past few months. By and large, the industry is still not so enthused by the idea of a new centralised mechanism and had been lobbying with the panel to make it industry-friendly.