With the new law on spurious drugs is set to be implemented any time, the small scale pharma industry is mulling the possibility of highlighting the human rights angle strongly and even moving the National Human Rights Commission against the possible harassment to genuine manufacturers in the name of law.
Left with little chance of getting it reversed, some organisations representing the small scale units are planning to take the help of NGOs to move the human rights panel and catch the attention of the office of the President who alone can call back the Bill and ask for review, sources said.
"The bill has been given assent by the President already. Only notification is to come to put into effect and rules have to be framed before that. It is unlikely that there can be some changes to the provisions now and we are left with no options. If a drug inspector wants to harass a manufacturer, he can do it easily under the pretext of the new law. If a manufacturer is arrested on Friday, he should be in jail till Monday naturally. It is going to be a case of human rights violation," felt CIPI chairman T S Jaishankar.
Meanwhile the small scale organisations like CIPI and SPIC have decided to make a strong representation of the case before the DCC sub-committee which is meeting in Delhi on February 27 on the issue.
The subcommittee has been set up to recommend measures to combat the spurious drugs menace and suggest ways and means for coordination between the states for effective implementation of the provisions of the recently amended Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The industry bodies have also been invited as special invitees for the meeting.
The small scale sector is also aggrieved that only big pharma players were taken into confidence while the authorities gave final shape to the law and the grievances of the small players were not given due attention. The small units would be badly hit by the new law, they claim.
Interestingly, the spurious drugs law issue has divided the pharma industry with the big pharma units wholeheartedly supporting the new law. They have played down the possible harassment angle and are in no mood to go with the small scale sector. Even Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) which has taken some steps to help the small scale units by setting up a task force to study the problems has refused to include the spurious drugs issue in their recommendations, it is learnt.