Coming down heavily on the alleged attempts to tarnish the image of the small and medium sector by some groups and ongoing viticimisation, the SME Pharma Industries Confederation (SPIC) has called for the creation of a separate ministry or cell for pharma sector having fiscal powers and with separate wing for SME to put things on right track.

In a letter to the Prime Minister and the members and chairman of the select committee on health and family welfare, the SPIC claimed that there was a deliberate tirade through media, more recently by projecting high figures of fake drugs, and lobbying in all possible ways to eliminate 5000 SSI units. After invoking Schedule M norms to drain the small players financially, now the Drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Bill 2007 was being pushed to eliminate the SSIs under CDA which would divest the powers of State licencing authorities, the SPIC claimed.

"The public and select committee are misled with fudged figures of 20 per cent fake drugs in a section of the media and nobody in the government has bothered to contradict the figures yet,'' the letter said. According to the union health minister, there were no reports of increased incidence of substandard and fake drugs over the last four years and only 0.2 to 0.3 per cent of samples were spurious in official tests, SPIC cited to deny the media claims.

"Lobbies are using Pink Media to tarnish image of SSI to justify the drugs amendment bill. Fact of the matter is that spurious drugs cannot be gotten rid of by centralizing licensing under CDA but States need to be supported for better administration and vigilance against a clandestine activity,'' the letter said.

"Similarly, public was told through media that Irrational Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs) are sought to be withdrawn which were in use for over 10 years. But the fact of the matter was that out of 294 FDCs, more than half were sought to be allowed from DCGI Office on payment of exorbitant fee involving Consultants also. The only purpose it serves is to take these FDCs from SSI and hand it over to large industry which is resourceful to manage licenses from DCGI. This is why the DCGI Office never called them irrational,'' SPIC claimed.

It is high time that all issues affecting the pharma sector are handed over to an independent cell or Ministry having fiscal powers with a separate wing for SME instead of setting up CDA. Fiscal mismanagement has not only led to loss of revenue but also price rise despite abundance, something consumer organisations have repeatedly pointed out, SPIC said, urging the Prime Minister to intervene at the earliest.