With concerned ministries showing no 'urgency', the move to finalise the long-pending pharmaceutical pricing policy has once again been put on the hold as no date was yet fixed for the next meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM).
“We had written to the office of Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar more than one month back seeking the date for the GoM. But no reply has come yet on the possible date,” sources in the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) said.
The GoM headed by Pawar was supposed to meet immediately after the end of the Parliament Session on May 22, but it did not take place yet even as the Monsoon Session began. The Presidential election was cited as the reason for delay earlier, but now elections to both the President and the Vice-President are over.
The DoP was still trying to get a date fixed as it wants to keep the momentum going for finalizing the long-delayed policy. The copies of the letter were also sent to other concerned Ministries, sources said, adding that the GoM may meet before the current Session ends as all members would be around to attend the Parliament.
The last meeting, on May 18, had decided to meet in the next week after the Parliament Session was over. The GoM held three meetings so far and sat through the presentations by different stakeholders and the suggestions and recommendations of the DoP.
The next meeting is widely expected to be crucial in taking a final call on the pricing mechanism that should be adopted for the essential medicines under the policy.
Other members of the GoM are Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister M K Alagiri, Law Minister Salman Khurshid, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Srikant Jena and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.