As the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the pharmaceutical policy is meeting here on Wednesday to take a final call on the pricing of drugs, the Health Ministry is learnt to have decided to press upon the panel to treat affordability as the most crucial point to guide the pricing mechanism.
Sources in the Health Ministry said it would oppose the suggested market based costing model and would propose the cost-based pricing model, preferably to cap the prices of essential drugs on the average of the three cheapest brands.
Meanwhile, sources in the Department of Pharmaceuticals said the meeting would all likely be held on Wednesday. “As of now, the meeting is to take place as scheduled with the available members present in the Capital,” sources confirmed.
The GoM, headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, has Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister M K Alagiri, Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia as members.
The GoM is expected to examine the proposals by the DoP on the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy (NPPP). The panel is expected to take a final view on the costing mechanism and the extent of price control, based on the draft prepared by the DOP. It is going to be the first meeting after the panel was constituted in September 2009 on the matter.
Indications are that the GoM would not rush for a final judgement on the vexed matter and would again give chance to select stakeholders to express views, apart from taking note of the suggestions from the concerned ministers, especially the Chemicals and Health.
NPPP 2011, the basic drug price control plan formulated by the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers, was uploaded on the ministry website for stakeholder views several months earlier. Of over two dozen suggestions, the ministry is to indicate its preferences at the GoM. The latter’s decision will then require Cabinet approval and a final nod of the Supreme Court before the policy can be put in force.
The previous GoM on pharma, set up in January 2007, was also headed by Pawar. It held four meetings through 2007 and 2008 but could not make any recommendations. The last meeting was in April 2008. Although the next meeting of the GoM was expected to finalise the policy, it never happened. The delay in the announcement of a policy had led public interest groups petitioning the Supreme Court. Preparation of NPPP and the proposed GoM meeting are fallouts of the judicial intervention.