In a major climb down from its proposal to place 354 essential medicines under price control (against the existing 74 drugs) in the new pharmaceutical policy, the Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Ministry may ultimately compromise to limit the price control to only 200 drugs, it is learnt.

According to highly placed sources, the Union Chemicals Ministry has already identified some 200 drugs on which the Ministry will insist for government control in fixing prices on the plea of making available these essential drugs to the common man at affordable prices.

"We have identified around 200 drugs out of the Ministry's original list of 354 drugs for bringing under price control. We will take out vaccines, hospital supplies, medicines up to Rs one, etc from the list. It will bring down the number from 354 to nearly 200", a senior official involved in preparing the policy said adding, "the Minister has also more or less given his nod to it".

Earlier, the Chemicals Ministry had proposed in the national pharma policy that 354 essential medicines should be brought under government control on the basis of reports suggesting that the pharma companies are fixing astronomical prices for essential medicines making them out of reach of the predominantly poor people of this country. The ministry's proposal had literally stirred a hornet's nest with strong resistance from different quarters, forcing the Prime Minister to constitute a Group of Ministers (GoM) to thrash out the issue.

The Chemicals Ministry's climb down from its earlier stand comes from the anticipation that the Ministry may find the going tuff in insisting on bringing all the 354 medicines under price control due to stiff resistance from the pharma industry. The industry argues that the government should monitor the prices of essential medicines instead of controlling it. Its argument goes that the market competition will act as a check on prices.

Besides the industry, chemicals and fertilizers Minister Ramvilas Paswan is also facing resistance from his ministerial colleagues on the issue of bringing medicines under price control as they term this as a retrograde act which will adversely affect the booming pharmaceutical industry of the country.