The drug policy review committee set up by the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers in the run-up to frame the Pharmaceutical Policy 2006 has submitted a `tentative' report to the Minister as the deadline closed on November 30, it is learnt.

However an official clarification on the submission of the much-awaited report is yet to be made as the senior officials in the Ministry remaining non-committal on the subject. The officials maintained that the report is likely by the middle of this month.

It is learnt that the authorities bought more time from the industry to iron out the crucial differences with the manufacturers before making the report official. The industry sources confirmed that another round of discussion is expected in a week to arrive at consensus on issues of dispute, so that a report acceptable to both the parties is made.

As per the deadline, the 14-member committee had submitted the report which, they themselves described, as purely tentative in nature, only to complete the formality. It had nothing new, other than documenting the views of both the sides and is clearly short of concrete recommendations, so that no spanner is thrown into the efforts of hammering out an acceptable report.

The policy may include both the monitoring and the control mechanism to make 354 drugs under the NLEM, going by the indications. The attempt is to make a formula wherein the NLEM are divided into two categories for this purpose. One of the points of difference is the number of drugs to be put under monitoring and price control mechanism. Industry wants more drugs under the monitoring mechanism and less under price control.

The industry wanted a monitoring mechanism to keep a tab on the fluctuation of prices of NLEM whereas the Minister wanted regulatory framework to control all these drugs. However, it is also reported that the Commerce Ministry is also not in favour of complete regulatory framework, which will curb the competitive spirit, a welcome sign of the liberalization policy of the Government.

The final meeting of the committee, held on November 25, remained inconclusive and agreed in principle to meet again, thus causing a delay in the final report.