The Group of Ministers (GoM), set up to finalise the National Pharmaceutical Policy, will take the briefing on the crucial price control issue at its next meeting and will decide on whom should be called from the industry to present views on the contentious clauses.

In the next meeting likely to be held only by the end of next month, the seven-member panel will sit through the rest of the presentation by Chemicals and Fertilizers Secretary Satwant Reddy. The ministry's presentation was not complete at the first formal meeting on April 10 and the crucial issue of price control was yet to be touched.

However, the industry associations, separately or together, will get a chance to present their views before the full panel on their differing stand on price control of drugs.

"Once the presentation is complete in the next meeting, the panel is likely to finalise on whom should be called from the industry and when should be given time. There was a passing reference on inviting NGOs also, but it is yet to be decided," an official who attended the meeting disclosed.
"Anyway, there will be a formal invite to the industry to make the presentations on the issue. But, it is unlikely that they will get sufficient time for this purpose at the usually one-hour GoM meeting and so it is up to the industry to meet the members of the panel individually to push their views through before or after the sitting,'' said the official.

Though the date for the next meeting is yet to be fixed, the sources close to the GoM claimed that the policy is likely to be finalised after a couple of meetings more and there would not be a long delay to announce it, as was viewed generally.

After the first meeting, GoM chief and Consumer Affairs Minister Sharad Pawar had announced the plans to give opportunity to the industry to express their views on the price control on more drugs, which was aggressively by the Chemicals Ministry and opposed by the industry players.

The members of the GoM include Chemicals Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman, Planning Commission. The Cabinet had referred the policy to the GoM on January 11, following the differences of opinion among the Ministries as well as the industry and other concerned groups with regard to expanding the purview of price control mechanism.