Debashish Panda, joint secretary in the union health ministry, has been transferred from the health ministry. He is being transferred to Railway Procurement, it is learnt.

According to sources, Panda has been transferred to the Railway Procurement after the completion of three years in the health ministry and November 3 will be his last working day in the health ministry.

Panda’s removal from the union health ministry has been doing the rounds in the corridors of the ministry as both he Indian pharma industry, excepting the big multi-national companies, and the NGOs working in the health sector have been at loggerheads with Panda for quite some time on several issues. The latest issue was the recently notified Spurious Drugs Act under which the manufacturing and selling of spurious drugs have been made a non-bailable offence. The industry was furious with the senior health ministry officials, including Panda, over the issue as they did not keep their words in notifying the guidelines attached to the Act.

Besides, on several patent issues such as IMPACT and data exclusivity, Panda and the NGOs were seen crossing the swords on several occasions in the past.