Even as the Group of Ministers (GoM) on national pharma policy led by union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is scheduled to hold its first meeting on April 25 to decide on national pharma pricing policy (NPPP), major pharma industry associations in the country have urged the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) not to deviate from its proposal in the draft policy on the method of price fixation and the span of the price control.

Expressing concern over the final recommendations of the DoP on the draft pharma policy, major pharma industry associations like Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA) and Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers in India (OPPI) in a joint representation to union minister for chemicals and fertilisers MK Alagiri said that the two key issues affecting the industry immediately and availability of medicines in the long run are span of price control and method of price fixation.

“We, all industry associations, were unanimous in conveying our views that the span of control must not go beyond the specified formulations in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) 2011 and the department of pharmaceuticals should not deviate from its proposal in the draft policy on the method of price fixation,” the joint memorandum said.

Stressing the need for a carefully calibrated policy to avoid adverse trade-offs such as unavailability of medicines or slow down in investment, growth and employment, the industry associations brought to the notice of the department of pharmaceuticals the drawbacks of normative cost-based pricing system, and benefits of a transparent market-based pricing system.

The industry's concern in this regard stems from the fact that both the DoP and the union health ministry have aired divergent views on the issue. While the DoP had issued a draft national pharma pricing policy in which it had suggested pricing of essential drugs based on the average of the three bestselling brands, the health ministry is opposing the original draft proposal of the DoP. Health ministry has suggested that the pricing should be based either on the average price of three cheapest brands or the government’s bulk procurement price to uphold the principle of affordability.

All these issues are expected to be thrashed out by the GoM at its next meeting.