The stalemate in the Indian Pharmaceutical Congress Association (IPCA) is likely to remain unresolved in near future, as the dissenting organisations are likely to turn down the IPA proposal of entering into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with solution prescriptions.

As per a new compromising formula and MoU suggested by the IPA president Subodh P Priolkar, any constituent members can come forward to conduct the IPC and all the associations can take turns in organizing the event, either individually or jointly. And the association, which is organising the event, should give the IPCA a lumpsum amount of a few lakh rupees, for awarding the event. One among the major complaints of the dissenting associations was that the IPA state boards are mainly organising the event, irrespective of the venue.

Regarding the issue of benefit sharing, the MoU suggested that the profits from each of the IPCs should be shared on a 60:40 ratio, 60 per cent to the local organisers and 40 per cent equally shared between all the associations. The MoU will be valid for a period of five years. Subodh Priolkar said the proposed MoU and suggestions have been forwarded to the other associations, and are awaiting their feedback. All the associations have assured full co-operation for the success of the forthcoming IPC in Mumbai, he said.

Talking to Pharmabiz, S W Deshpande of AIDCOC, said the dissenting associations would discuss the MoU at the next meeting of IPCA, scheduled for the end of this month. "The MoU is proposed for a period of five years, which means the associations cannot raise their voice for the next five years once they enter into the MoU. More than the benefit sharing issue, our demand is to have equal representation in the IPCA. But IPA is not willing to compromise on that aspect. I am waiting for the feedback from other associations. We will take a unanimous decision. The discussions will continue," said Deshpande.

As per the current practice of IPCA, IPA can nominate 8 members and the other organizations have 2 members each. Apart from this, 5 members are nominated by the IPCA secretariat. The dissenting organisations allege these members are IPA nominees, though IPA contends that they are nominated by IPCA and are from different organisations.

As Pharmabiz reported, IPCA, the organizing body of the Indian Pharmaceutical Congress for the last 57 years, is on the verge of a break up on a host of issues raised by four of its constituent members - The Indian Pharmacy Graduates Association (IPGA), The Indian Hospital Pharmacists Association (IHPA), Association of Pharmacy Teachers of India (APTI) and All India Drug Control Officers Confederation (AIDCOC), over the dominance of the Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA). The four organizations had threatened to break away from IPCA over issues like dominance of IPA in IPCA, lack of proper representation and benefit sharing.

The dissenting constituent organizations had declined to accept the recommendations of the committee appointed by IPCA to look into the issues and to create a new organizational framework for the organization. One such recommendation was to allow representation in IPCA in accordance with the membership strength of the associations. The dissenting members were of the view that all the five member organizations should get equal representation, as all are equally responsible for the conduct of IPC. The committee also had suggested to allow IPA to take the lead in conducting IPC on every alternate years, and each of the IPCA associations could conduct the IPC on a rotation basis. As far as benefit sharing is concerned, the committee recommendation was to give 25 per cent of benefits to all organizations other than IPA, but this was also not acceptable to the rebel organizations.

Following this, the IPCA executive committee had entrusted Deshpande and Subodh Priolkar to suggest a new compromising formula.