Concerned over the post haste in which the CDA Bill is being redrafted to introduce in the forthcoming short session of Parliament, the small scale pharma industries (SSIs) in the country have urged Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to stop placing the CDA Bill in the parliament. They alleged that the health ministry officials on behalf of the multinational pharma companies are pushing the bill through the forthcoming Parliament session.
In a letter, the SME Pharma Industries Confederation (SPIC), a confederation representing the small pharma industries, has sought Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi's intervention in the matter to stop the CDA Bill to save the around 5000 SSIs which produce around 40 per cent of total Rs.70,000 crore worth of medicines in the country and also provide employment to a large number of people.
"On behalf of pharma SSI, we wish to remind the government that we are at the end of the tether with the CDA Bill being brought in a hurry in the Parliament Session beginning February 12, 2009. Government may please stop this bill and not appease multinationals at the cost of SSI to save India from price rise of medicines as cost of upgradation and recurring expenses thereof shall have to be included in the retail prices of medicines sooner than later. Combined with multinational takeover, it will effectively end the era of affordable medicines in India if SSIs do not provide competitiveness", the letter said.
The SSIs sense some foul play in the health ministry's unusual haste in redrafting the Bill, as they fear that the Bill may be hurried through the Parliament just on the lines of Drugs & Cosmetic (Amendment) Bill which was passed in "one minute one bill" fashion in the last Parliament session in October, 2008. The Drugs & Cosmetic (Amendment) Bill was passed without any discussion in Parliament and the manufacturers are still fighting with the government to make some amendments in the Act. The SSIs fear that if the CDA Bill is also passed in the same fashion without properly incorporating the recommendations of Amar Singh panel, the SSIs will be in real trouble.