The Department of Chemicals and Fertilizers may soon clear a list of 40 drugs meant to be manufactured by drug manufacturing units in the public sector.

Though these drugs, selected from the essential drugs list, will not be reserved for PSUs, the department is likely to ask all central government departments and hospitals to purchase these drugs on a preferential basis. The prices of all these drugs would be fixed by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).

According to sources, the list is to be finalised within a week. The UPA Government has been considering various options for the revival of PSUs for some time now. The government is of the view that the PSUs continue to be relevant and may be able to play a major role during the product patent regime by manufacturing certain patented drugs to meet emergency requirements through the grant of compulsory license. The government feels that the survival of drug PSUs can be ensured through preferential purchase arrangements based on NPPA fixed prices.

It should be recalled that the Pronab Sen Committee on medicine prices had suggested that all departments of the Central Government may be advised to first procure their drugs from these PSUs at prices approved by NPPA for the drugs covered under the essential category. For other drugs produced by these enterprises, procurement can be done through the normal tendering process. Another system would be to set up a common pricing and supply committee for all the central pharmaceutical PSUs, which can determine the prices of drugs produced by them and also the list of drugs which must be necessarily produced for the public health system.

As pharmabiz had reported earlier, the chemicals ministry has already announced its plans to revive all the five units of Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IDPL) located at Gurgaon, Chennai, Hyderabad, Muzaffarpur and Rishikesh in a phased manner. It was also decided to release required amount to IDPL so that the renovation and upgradation work of the chemical plant at Muzaffarpur and the formulation and bulk drug plant at the Hyderabad unit could be started without delay.