In view of the divergent opinions by the stakeholders conveyed through the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) on the crucial issue of price control of essential drugs, the Group of Ministers (GoM) has decided to hold fresh consultations with the stakeholders, raising apprehensions for a long wait again for the finalisation of the policy.

The much-awaited meeting of the panel headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was held last evening, after deferring it for several times, but did not take any final call on the possible price control mechanism.

The GoM decided to give another window to all interested stakeholders, including from the industry and outside, for expressing their views as there was no consensus over the draft National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy (NPPP) prepared by the DoP, sources said.

The DoP made a presentation to the members incorporating all the recommendations and suggestions from the stakeholders along with its own views and draft policy. The members, present at the meeting, hence suggested for wider deliberations for minimising the criticism over the policy, sources revealed.

Other members of the GoM are Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister M K Alagiri, Law Minister Salman Khurshid, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Srikant Kumar Jena, and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Except for Alagiri, all other members were present at the meeting.

The main task of the GoM, set up in 2009, was to finalise a mechanism to control the prices of 348 essential drugs and their combinations, based on the draft proposal and suggestions from the stakeholders, with a view to make medicines affordable.

The previous GoM on pharma, set up in January 2007, was also headed by Pawar. It held four meetings through 2007 and 2008 but could not make any recommendations. The last meeting was in April 2008. Although the next meeting of the GoM was expected to finalise the policy, it never happened. The delay in the announcement of a policy had led public interest groups petitioning the Supreme Court. Preparation of NPPP and the first meeting now are fallouts of the judicial intervention.