The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) is planning to convene a meeting of all concerned stakeholders including the government agencies to discuss the matter of drug procurement in the public sector, against the backdrop of repeated complaints by the industry players especially the small and medium scale sector in this regard.
As part of making a powerful intervention on the issue, the DoP has asked the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to provide the copies of all directions and clarifications by the Government departments and agencies about procurement of medicines, along with the comments.
The DoP also sought the help of Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA) to collect the copies of guidelines, instructions, circulars on the topic of drug procurement issued by different State governments, institutions, and hospitals in the public sector. After collecting all the materials, the DoP will organize a meeting of all concerned stakeholders to discuss the matter, sources said.
Sources said the Department had taken up the matter with concerned departments like Railways separately many times and had written to the agencies in the Government sector about the differential treatment meted out to the small and medium scale units. However, no uniform norms were available. And, now the move is aimed at working out some uniformity in the sector, with the help of industry and the government departments, sources added.
At present, different agencies like Railways, SAIL, RITES and State governments have different norms with several conditions on the turnover limits and size of the company. While SAIL had stipulated that only the top 100 companies based on sales turnover can apply for tenders, Railways had put a condition that the turnover of the applicant must be minimum of Rs.50 crore for participating in tenders for drug procurement. The South Eastern Coalfield has been insisting on a valid WHO-GMP and CoPP for participating in its tenders, according to the industry sources.