With an aim to ensure enhanced access to affordable medicines in the country, the Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry (CIPI) has urged the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) to direct the Group of Experts examining the pricing policy of patented drugs to come out with its recommendations soon for the sake of clarity on the front of accessibility and affordability.

In 2013 DoP had set up a new inter-ministerial committee with four representatives each from the ministry of commerce, ministry of health, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) and one from the DoP itself to look into the pricing policy of patented drugs. The committee has not yet submitted its report.

Patented medicines are mostly sold by multinational pharma companies in India such as Roche, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals.

Patented drugs are very expensive in absence of competition. Generally a patent lasts for 20 years. A drug company having a patent for a specific medicine enjoys exclusive manufacturing and marketing rights for two decades as other companies are not allowed to sell the same drug. Though, there are exceptional provisions such as compulsory licencing that can be exercised by the government to allow other drug companies to sell the patented medicine even before the patent term expires. So far the government of India had granted only one compulsory license. In March 2012, the license was granted to Indian generic drug manufacturer Natco Pharma Ltd for sorafenib tosylate, a cancer drug patented by Bayer.

The appeal to DoP was part of a slew of suggestions made by CIPI in response to DoP's efforts seeking suggestions from industry bodies to ensure implementation of point No. 5.8 of NIPR Policy as announced by the government which reads: “5.8 Ensure enhanced access to affordable medicines and other healthcare solutions by (a) encouraging cross-sector partnerships between public sector, private sector, universities and NGO; (b) promoting novel licensing models and (c) developing novel technology platforms”.

The pricing policy of patented drugs, indigenous or imported, which is being examined by a group of experts need to be expedited for the sake of clarity on the front of accessibility and affordability, said CIPI in its suggestion to DoP.

Affordability of patented medicines can be enhanced by grant of compulsory licenses as provided for in India Patents Act whenever the requirement is felt by the government especially for universal health programmes, said CIPI executive secretary Sudesh Kumar.

In our country spending on health is around 1 per cent of GDP whereas in countries like China, Brazil and USA the same is 3 per cent, 4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively of the GDP. The health spent should be increased so that more population is covered under the health schemes of the government, he said.