The third meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Sharad Pawar on the national pharmaceutical policy, which was scheduled for today, was postponed in the last minute and is likely to be held sometime in November itself.

``The meeting was scheduled for the morning. But the Cabinet meeting held in the morning went longer than expected and the members of the panel could not hence make it for the GoM meeting due to other prescheduled commitments. The meeting was thus postponed,'' Joint Secretary in the Chemicals Department G S Sandhu informed Pharmabiz.

He also said that no date has been fixed for the third meeting now, but it would be held most probably this month itself, depending on the availability of the members of the panel. The GoM has seven members and has held two meetings already.

The committee, in its last meeting on September 12, sat through the presentations by the leading industry bodies on the issue of price control over 354 drugs, instead of the present 74 drugs.

In November last year, the ministry of chemicals had sent the draft pharma policy to the Cabinet which increased the span of control on 354 essential medicines, besides the existing 74 drugs under DPCO, 1995. And in January, the Prime Minister constituted the GoM which held its first meeting on April 10.