Senior Rajya Sabha MP Abani Roy has alleged that there was no synchronizing between different ministries on the measures to ensure quality medicines at affordable prices and this was happening on the behest of multinational companies.
In a letter to health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Leftist MP has urged him to hold inter-ministerial meetings involving ministries of chemicals, commerce, finance and MSME along with stakeholders and DCGI to study the facts that prevents the UPA Government from providing quality medicines at affordable prices which is a commitment by the UPA.
"It is needless to mention that there is no synchronizing whatsoever in the various departments of the government on the behest of multinationals. There are ample instances of Indian large units being gobbled by multinationals with money power and unnecessary regulatory mechanism is being placed to close the SME pharma units," he said in the letter, which was also sent chemicals minister, commerce minister, Planning Commission and standing committee on health.
The DCGI in 2001 under pressure of orchestrated campaign by multinationals introduced the Schedule M and later good laboratory practices. "While introducing these laws, nobody visualized that the move is to impose heavy investment burden on public sector vaccine units and SME pharma units without increase in purity of medicines. Indirectly, it was aimed at closing the vaccine units and SME units and makes the availability of medicines at exorbitant prices by sharks in guise of multinational and large units. Implementation of Schedule M and GLP needed approximately Rs 20-30 crore investment. The government especially the DCGI and the pharma department have been dragging their feet in taking any steps to save the competitiveness of SME units. The 181th report of the standing committee on subordinate legation is a pointer to the delay tactics initiated by various wings of the government under pressure from multinational and large scale units," he said in the letter, sent in reference to a recent debate in the Parliament on spurious drugs.
He claimed that the policies affecting the affordability and pricing of drugs are done by different departments in isolation without inter-ministerial coordination. "The Pharma Department set up Jan Aushadhi outlets and also published a comparative study of MRP with branded medicines. I understand that the completion of this comparative study has been stopped under pressure by the multinationals and large units, as such studies expose their high profit margins in the name of quality," Roy said, while referring to the government's own stand that there is no quality difference between unbranded generic drugs or branded drugs.