With no prospects of national pharmaceutical policy not getting finalized in the near future, many schemes related to pharma industry under the current Five Year Plan have been the direct casualties without getting in-principle approval from the Planning Commission.

Now the Department of Pharmaceutical (DoP) is trying ways out to delink some of these proposals, including those for strengthening the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), from the policy so that the schemes can take off.

Though as many as five schemes were proposed by the Department to strengthen the NPPA for better price monitoring, only one was approved by the Planning Commission as others were linked to the pending pharma policy, even after three years into the current Plan. This has prompted the DoP to take steps to delink the proposed schemes in general and especially those related to NPPA from the policy which unlikely to see the light of the day, it is learnt.

The five new schemes were building robust and responsive statistical system for NPPA, creation of NPPA Cells in states, scheme for interaction with states, proposal for consumer awareness and publicity through print, electronic and other medium and a proposal for strengthening the existing monitoring and enforcement work were submitted to the Planning Commission for the 11th Five Year Plan spanning from year 2007-08 to 2011-12. The total expenditure expected for the schemes amounts to Rs.49.95 crore.

However, only the first one had been approved and an amount of Rs.2.25 crore had been earmarked under the Plan head last year for this purpose. Though in-principle approval was given, the scheme could not be launched yet as the Planning Commission was taking views on the publicity campaign scheme from the Department of Consumer Affairs. Since other proposals could not secure in-principle approval from the Planning Commission, allocation also could not be made for them. The Planning Commission was also reportedly tied down as these schemes were also linked to the pending policy.

The Parliamentary Panel attached to Chemicals Ministry has many times asked the department to take steps expeditiously. It also criticised the Planning Commission in its recent report. "The Committees are not at all happy with the casual approach of the Planning Commission in delaying the four other schemes proposed for strengthening and monitoring of prices of drugs and pharmaceuticals. The Committee wish to be apprised of the precise reasons for not granting in-principle approval to the four schemes. The Committee also take strong exception to the lack of vigorous efforts on the part of the Department for obtaining in-principle approval of all the schemes. The Committee would also like the Department to wake up and take concrete measures at the highest level to get the in-principle approval for the important schemes," the report said.