The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII)'s ambitious initiative to act as a frontal organization in taking up pharma related issues with the government has been shelved for some time. The CII initiative did not make any headway even one month after it brought together most of the pharma associations in the country on a single platform on June 4.

After the first meeting on June 4, the CII was to lead a team of pharma associations to give a representation to the government on the issue of National Pharma Policy which is being finalized by a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Sharad Pawar. Though the meeting discussed several common issues such as counterfeit drugs, labour issues, SME sector issues, HR issues, etc, the meeting decided to first take up the issue of pharma policy with the government.

The general feeling among the industry associations was that since CII is a wider and respectable industry body than other associations, it can make more impact in the government due to its influence in the power that be.

But nothing has been done so far. No progress has been made on the issue after its first meeting on June 4. The CII has decided to go slow on the issue of acting as a frontal organization in taking up pharma related issues with the government as everything is going on right direction. The government is making the pharma policy on expected lines and there is no need for further interfering in it at this stage, sources said.

Probably for the first time in the history of the pharma industry, the CII has been able to bring together most of the pharma associations in the country to thrash out common issues that are confronting the industry. Most of the major pharma associations in the country, including OPPI, IDMA, CIPI, BDMA, etc, participated in the meeting which was held with much fanfare on June 4 in Mumbai. But, IPA kept aloof from the meeting.

The meeting was held in the backdrop of a growing feeling among the pharma industry that due to the fragmented nature of the pharma industry associations, the industry was on a receiving end on several issues. Different organizations have been working on cross purposes due to lack of coordination between the pharma associations. The new CII initiative was to provide a new direction to the industry to work unitedly for the betterment of the industry.