After about eight months of its constitution, the second meeting of the group of ministers (GoM), constituted by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to finalise the much controversial National Pharmaceutical Policy, will be held on September 5, 2007 in Delhi under Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar who heads the GoM.

The first meeting of the 7-member GoM was held on April 10, after 3 months of the formation on January 11 this year. That meeting, which remained inconclusive, broadly took up the pharmaceutical policy draft and there was no focus on any specific aspect of the policy. The September 5 meeting is expected to draw a roadmap for finalising the policy. It may also decide whether to give any opportunity to the stakeholders including the industry associations and NGOs to further argue the case.

The main agenda before the GoM is whether the government should control the prices of the essential medicines or it should be left to the market forces to take care. While the industry is totally opposed to the idea of putting the prices of medicines under the government scanner, the Chemicals Ministry is going the whole hog for bringing more medicines under price control as a measure to bring essential medicines to the reach of the common man of the country.

Chemicals & Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Commerce & Industry Minister Kamal Nath, Health Minister Anbumani Ramdoss, Science & Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, Law Minister H R Bhardwaj and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia are the members of the GoM. The Union Cabinet on January 11 had referred the policy to the GoM, after industry and the Chemicals Ministry took contrasting stands on the ticklish issue of including more drugs under the dragnet of price control.

The draft National Pharmaceutical Policy, aimed at ensuring life-saving drugs available at affordable prices, was submitted to the Union Government by the Union Chemicals & Fertilisers Ministry on December 28, 2005 for its implementation. But, the Policy ran into rough weather when the pharma industry took serious exception to several issues in the draft including the price control. Besides, several other Union ministers also took a divergent view on the policy forcing the matter to be left to the discretion of the Prime Minister.

Amid speculations that the industry is trying to influence the Prime Minister to change the policy, the PM constituted the 7-member GoM under Pawar to finalise the same in January this year.