The pharma associations' bid to meet some of the central ministers to seek their intervention in the raging issue of suo-moto hike in prices of both formulations and bulk drugs in the wake of exponential rise in prices of raw materials and intermediates has met with an unexpected roadblock. That is the lingering standoff between the Congress and the Left Front on the Indo-US Nuclear deal.

The association representatives, who sought the appointment of the central ministers for their urgent intervention on the issue, have been asked to wait for some time till the stalemate over the Nuclear deal is resolved. "Senior officials in the central ministries have asked us to wait for some time to meet the ministers as the ministers are waiting for the final outcome on the deal which will have a bearing on the continuation of the government. The said that since these ministers are also actively involved in the confabulations to find a solution, the pharma industry's call for suo-moto hike in prices will not be taken seriously", an association leader said.

Upset over the attitude of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), which has turned down the industry's plea for a suo-moto upward revision of prices of both formulations and bulk drugs, the pharma associations were planning to meet the central ministers to apprise them of the problems being faced by the industry in the wake of the unprecedented rise in prices of raw materials and intermediates.

The associations were planning to meet chemicals minister Ramvilas Paswan, health minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, finance minister P Chidambaram, etc to apprise them of the latest developments in the industry and also to seek their intervention to restrain the NPPA from interfering in the pharma pricing till the National Pharmaceutical Policy, which is under the active consideration of a Group of Ministers (GoM), is finalised.

The industry wanted to apprise the ministers about the consequences of the NPPA policy on pricing. While the NPPA is proactive to reduce the prices of both formulations and bulk drugs on the basis of appreciation of rupee against US dollar and the low prices of raw materials and intermediates, it looks the other way when the rupee depreciated and the prices of raw materials and intermediates went up substantially.

If the situation continues for some more time, the industry will be left with no other option but to stop production as NPPA directive does not permit to have more than 10 per cent price increase in a year whereas the impact of most of the commonly used APIs has gone to the extent of 50 per cent, if not more. This will threaten the availability of even the commonly used medicines in the country.