After a long gap, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) is reviving the initiative to fix the prices of patented drugs through negotiations before they are marketed in the country.

The high-level committee set up in February 2007 to suggest a framework to fix the prices of imported drugs through negotiations has sought the comments of the industry on the proposals it has already finalised in this regard. The panel has asked the leading industry organisations to make the representations to it at a meeting scheduled here on August 27, sources said.

The revival moves comes amidst the recent debate stirred by the proposal by the Prime Ministers' Office (PMO) to extend the patent period of drugs beyond the existing 20 years. The PMO has in the note sent to concerned ministries like Health, Commerce and Law, had sought comments about reviewing the Section 3(d) of the Indian Patent Act. The health ministry has reportedly turned down the proposal forthwith while the small and medium scale pharma industries viewed it as move initiated at the behest of multinational companies.

The committee of price negotiation has been grappling with its formula which has drawn wide criticism from many sections. The new move is aimed at resolving the differences among the industry and hammering out a consensus on the proposal. According to this, price negotiations will be done for those patented drugs being launched in the country and will be negotiated on the basis of international reference pricing system. The prices of the identified drugs were to be fixed at the lowest in the international market.

The mechanism proposes two types of prices, one of which would be for the open market and the other would be for prescriptions generating from the public health facilities, which would be 40- 70 per cent lower than the negotiated market price in India. The committee had identified 10 such oncological drugs for the purpose of price negotiations. But the proposal was not accepted by large sections of the industry and the public interest groups, thus forcing the panel to seek fresh inputs from the pharma organisations.