Moved by the cries from the industry over the shooting prices of raw materials and increased costs of intermediates being imported, the Department of Pharmaceuticals may come up with some corrective measures to ensure stability of imports and thereby avoiding any shortfall in the availability of drugs in the country.

With the aim to garnering views and suggestions from the industry in this regard, joint secretary in the department G S Sandhu and senior official Paresh Johri will meet the select CEOs and captains of the industry at Hyderabad on July 25. The meeting is being jointly organised by the Pharmexcil and Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA).

With the imports of bulk drugs and intermediaries from countries like China going costly and scarce, the government has seriously taken note of the industry apprehensions that production of formulations could be affected. The Government wants to get feedback from the industry in this regard and take necessary steps if needed, sources said.

The agenda of the meeting is `augmentation of production - issues being faced by pharma sector.' It will cover topics like situation in China as regards production , prices of drug intermediates/bulk drugs, impact of Chinese imports on industry and prices of bulk drugs/drug intermediates, measures to reduce dependence on the Chinese imports and augment production, impact of changing scenario in Europe where regulators are being asked to inspect foreign API facilities, impact of REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) Regulations in Europe, consequences of new product patent regime on exports and preparation for producing off-patent drugs.

The government wants to know exactly how far India is dependent on import of intermediaries from other countries and how the present situation would make an impact on the domestic industry in the long run. "It will primarily identify the issues and deliberate on the possible solutions. The captains of the industry in Hyderabad have been invited for the meeting,'' Pharmexcil executive director Dr P V Appaji said.

The pharma associations like SPIC have moved the Pharmaceutical Department to appraise about the grim situation caused by import woes and high input costs and have been insisting on interactions between the government and the industry to hammer out some possible and favourable measures to help the struggling sector.