After remaining headless for a couple of months causing policy inertia in the pharmaceutical sector, the Centre has finally appointed Dilsher Singh Kalha as the secretary of Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers.

However, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), another crucial body related to the pharma sector, is still without a chairman after G Balachandran retired in November last year. Apart from DoP and NPPA, CDSCO was also without a permanent head, thus causing to the policy paralysis in the regulatory segment.

The DoP, which was created in 2008 to look into the issues of hindrance in growth, infrastructure, research and education in the field of pharmaceuticals, has been operating without a secretary since November 2011, after Mukul Joshi superannuated on October 31.

Dilsher Singh, 1977 batch IAS officer from Punjab, had a stint with the Planning Commission before the present appointment as pharma secretary. This is the second posting of Dilsher in the Centre earlier one being with the Ministry of Minority Affairs, after long career in his parent cadre.

Though Loretta Mary was to take over as secretary, DoP after Mukul Joshi, the appointment was stalled since Chemicals Minister M K Azhagiri was not in favour of her. Sources said, Azhagiri who is not well conversant with any language other than Tamil, however, opted for another Punjab bureaucrat after Mukul Joshi.

The industry was peeved at the situation in which some key government departments were without top officials, thus the Government failing to give support and direction to the industry for many months.

The post of DCGI, which was earlier held by Surinder Singh, fell vacant in October 2011 when the Supreme Court refused to allow the extension of his tenure granted by the Ministry of Health. Since then, there had been no replacement. V G Somani, deputy drugs controller of the East Zone, was given additional responsibility of the DCGI.

The NPPA, which fixes and revises prices of controlled bulk drugs and formulations, is also in the same situation as no replacement has been made yet after G Balachandran retired as chairman recently.