The Central Government would mandate MRP inclusive of local taxes and mandate the industry to print bi-lingual labels for all the drugs in Hindi and English from April 1, 2006. The deadline for MRP inclusive of taxes is August 15, while that for markings in Hindi is October 2.

Addressing the Pharmaceutical Advisory Forum at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi last week, Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Ramvilas Paswan said that the drug manufacturers had sought a six-month period for switching over to the new MRP regime when the same was announced in the draft of the pharma policy and this process would be completed by August 2006.

He said the government has set a target of Rs 1 lakh crore turnover for the drug industry by 2010 and efforts are on to achieve this target. As part of this, the public sector drug manufacturing units in the country would be revived and strengthened to contribute more from the current production of just Rs 250 crore annual turnover.

Paswan noted the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the UPA government envisages raising the public spending on health from 0.9 per cent currently to at least 3 per cent of GDP over the next five years. Even by an increase of one per cent spending, the health spending would cross over Rs 25,000 crore. He said the new National Pharma Policy would ensure that medicines are available to the consumers at reasonable prices.

The meeting also agreed to cap the trade margins for generic drugs at 50 per cent, with the wholesaler and retailer sharing 15 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively.

The meeting was attended by Health Ministers of some states, state drug controllers, state health secretaries, representatives of drug industries, and representatives of All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD).