Stepping up the attack on pharmaceutical industry for ignoring to keep up the promise of voluntary price reduction, the Union Minister for Chemicals and Petrochemicals Ram Vilas Paswan said the pharma industry associations should ensure their members follow the promises given to the Government.

Replying to a Pharmabiz query on whether the Government was unknowingly playing into the hands of the industry by claiming price reduction of 886 drugs, which the NGOs point out none of the top 300 brands which constitute of over 90 per cent of the total domestic drug market figure in the list, Paswan said the industry had assured to voluntarily reduce trade margins for generic medicines to 15 per cent for wholesalers and 35 per cent for retailers.

"The list was published according to the data provided by the industry associations. However, this has not been reflected in the market so far. We had held many rounds of discussions on this with the industry association representatives of trade, large scale, medium and small-scale pharmaceutical industry. It is up to the associations to ensure their members are enacting the promises given to the Government," said Paswan.

He said the Government is also tracking to ensure whether the prices are actually reduced or not. The Government will give a few more days time to allow the manufacturers comply with the committed prices. If not implemented, the Government will notify the committed prices to initiate action against violators, he told reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of India Chem Expo in Mumbai, yesterday.

Reacting to the Minister's remark, D G Shah, secretary general of IPA said six of its members who manufacture generic-generic drugs had voluntarily submitted the list to the Government with details like MRP before and after reduction. "In any of the forum or media we have never claimed the number of drugs, and in fact our wish was to give a list of 1000 odd products as a beginning. It is a gesture of social commitment to ensure affordable medicines for our public. The Government should also consider the fact that over stress on price reduction may cause to affect drug availability as drug manufacturing is a business and the industry may discard production of unviable drugs", he said.

He said the Minister and media should understand that the reduced prices will be reflected in the market only when the drug reaches the retail shop, which also has to clear the inventory, and this cycle normally takes minimum more than one to one and a half months.

Another leading industry association representative, who preferred anonymity, said the association couldn't order its members to implement price reduction, as its role is only to guide and help the interests of various members.