The National Commission for Macroeconomics and Health (NCMH) may soon seek formation of a National Drug Authority (NDA) with powers to control the regulatory, pricing and procurement aspects of medicines. The recommendation of the Commission, co-chaired by the ministers of Finance and Health, will strengthen the position taken by the Mashelkar Panel on drug regulatory reforms and also add the responsibilities of price monitoring and drug procurement to the proposed NDA. The general body of NCMH is to meet on 9 May to fine-tune its recommendations.

The NCMH has also given emphasis on rational use of medicines and is likely to call for a separate cell to be created in the proposed NDA for rational use of drugs. The commission is also known to have taken a strong view on the need to have effective control of unethical advertisements of medicines. The recommendations of the high profile commission are to be taken up very seriously.

According to sources, NCMH is to chalk out a focused policy on health and investments in the country. The terms of reference of the commission was to identify the priority areas for health interventions and the financing strategies to address the priority areas outlined in the National Health Policy of 2002. This had necessitated the assessment of the magnitude of financial resources required from domestic and external sources and identification of a set of essential interventions to be made universally available to the entire population on the basis of public financing (with the requisite donor support). The commission had also looked into the possibilities of initiating a multi-layer programme for strengthening the health systems focused on service delivery at the local level including training, construction and upgrading of infrastructure and management development.

The members of the commission are the Secretaries of the Departments of Finance, Health, Family Welfare, ISM&H and Planning Commission, DGHS, Chief Economic Adviser, MOF, eminent economists, public health experts/administrators, industrialists, representatives from NGOs, World Bank and World Health Organisation.

The formation of the commission was in pursuance to the recommendations of the Commission for Macroeconomics and Health (CMH), established by DG, WHO in January 2000. It was then the Government of India decided to establish a National Commission to assess the place of health in global economic development.