An ORG IMS study, specially assigned by the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), has revealed that the price increase happened in the case of 663 formulations that figure in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) during the last three years (2003 - 2006), is just 0.7 per cent The figures might compel chemicals ministry to have a re-look at its plans to bring all NLEM drugs under price control in its National Pharmaceutical Policy 2006.

The study, commissioned in the backdrop of the Chemical Ministry insistence to control the prices of all essential drugs suggests that there has been no increase in the prices of essential medicines if one considers the 4 to 5 per cent annual inflation rates. ORG had picked up over 300 drugs from the 663 lists to study their comparative rates. The study proved that most of the drugs had moreover the same price during this period, with only some fast moving, high value brands being an exception.

The ORG study results have come at a time when the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is expecting the Chemicals Ministry to examine the price variation that has happened in the case of all NLEM drugs during the last three years. With ORG study indicating the outcome of such a study, Chemicals Ministry will find it difficult to push its agenda through the Cabinet.

The PMO had also asked the ministry to prepare a separate cabinet note explaining how the issue of price control can be dealt with without increasing the span of control. The PMO feels that the current proposal should be reviewed to ensure that the list of price controlled drugs remains as short as possible. It has observed that adopting the entire NLEM as the list of drugs to be brought under price regulation is clearly inappropriate.

The draft National Pharmaceutical Policy, 2006 seeks to strengthen the Drug Regulatory System and the patent office. It attempts to include, in addition to the existing 74 drugs and their formulations, the 354 drugs with specified strength as mentioned in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), 2003 in the draft Pharmaceutical Policy Apart from the cost plus method, other systems of price control like negotiated prices, differential prices, reference prices and bulk purchase price have also been proposed.