The efforts to put the long-pending pharmaceutical policy back on the track for finalisation hit the roadblock once again as the much-awaited the meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) has been postponed.

Sources in the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) confirmed that the meeting scheduled for Wednesday had been put off till next week, “subject to the availability of the Ministers who are the members of the panel.” No fresh date has been fixed yet, sources said.

The GoM, headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, has Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister M K Alagiri, Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia as members.

The GoM, constituted in September 2009, was expected to examine the proposals by the DoP on the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy (NPPP). The panel, which had to meet for the first time, was also supposed to take a final view on the costing mechanism and the extent of price control, based on the draft prepared by the DoP.

Meanwhile, the postponement of the meeting has once again raised apprehensions among the public interest groups and the industry observers. “The meeting was keenly awaited by all, and the deferment signals the lack of interest on the part of the authorities to frame the policy. Again, it is all likely to be pushed to the cold storage for another couple of years,” said a public health activist from the NGO that has been pushing for early finalisation of the policy.

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 proposed GoM meeting are fallouts of the judicial intervention.