The Centre is yet to file a counter affidavit in the Madras High Court and Karnataka High Court against the respective interim injunctions staying the implementation of hike in manufacturing licence fees. Last year both the courts had, on petitions from the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Tamil Nadu (PMA) and the North Kanara Drug Manufacturers Association (NKDMA), delivered interim injunction against the Centre''s decision to hike the drug licence fees and product licence fee for pharmaceutical products.

The Centre had hiked the manufacturing licence fee from Rs.7500 to Rs.15,000 and introduced Rs.300 per product as product licence fee. Against this, the PMA and the NKDMA had filed petitions claiming the steep hike in manufacturing licence and product licence fee was unjustified and unwarranted endangering them to the brink of collapse.

Members of the PMA and NKDMA taking cover of the interim injunction had their licence renewed at the old rates. Surprisingly, the hiked licence fee is being levied in the rest of the country.

It is difficult to fathom why the Centre has not filed a counter affidavit against the interim injunction. Sources claimed that the Centre was consulting legal experts to file the counter affidavit but what surprises everyone is the time being taken for consultation. It is almost a year the interim injunction is in force. Another school of thought has it that the Centre being busy on the implementation of the Pharma Policy 2002 and the new Drug Pricing Control Order (DPCO 2002) as part of the Pharma Policy 2002 has decided to take time to file the counter-affidavit fearing reprisal in the case.

In the meanwhile, the Centre has also found itself in the quagmire following the Karnataka High Court''s interim injunction to it to stay put the implementation of the DPCO 2002 claiming it did not detail out the life saving drugs under the ambit of the new DPCO thereby leading to a possible increase in prices of life saving drugs. Sources claim that the Centre is now concentrating on this issue before taking up the case of filing counter-affidavit in the case concerning licence and product fee hike.