The Union health ministry will soon finalise its recommendations on the contentious issue of giving a new definition to counterfeit drugs as per WHO proposal. The ministry will present the final document to the organisation at WHO meeting scheduled for mid-January. To find a consensus between government and the industry on the issue, DCGI has called a meeting of major pharma associations on January 9.

All the major industry associations like IDMA, OPPI, FOPE, CIPI, IPA, SPIC, etc have been asked to attend the meeting. Earlier, the DCGI had asked the industry to give its inputs on the issue by January 5. After getting the industry response on the issue, the Indian government has to submit a report to the WHO on the issue in the WHO's executive committee meeting on January 19 to 27.

The Indian government is learnt to be under tremendous pressure from the WHO to fall in line and approve its proposal to give a new definition to counterfeit drugs. In fact, some time back, the ministry had turned down the WHO's proposal due to stiff resistance from the industry. The industry pleaded with the government that the new definition will act against the Indian drug industry, especially the generic drug manufacturers as the new definition considers apparent 'trademark violations' as 'counterfeiting' cases.

The Indian drug manufacturers, especially the small and medium scale sector, are concerned over the WHO proposal as they fear the efforts would be another attempt by the big multinational companies to kill the Indian generic drug makers.

Apart from the industry, the NGOs working in the health sector also had expressed reservations on the WHO's attempt to give a new definition to counterfeit drugs. These NGOs had earlier urged the government to boycott the meeting called by International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT) of the WHO to discuss the issue. The NGOs alleged that this is an attempt by the big multinational companies to prevent the Indian generic drugs from going to different parts of the world.