Even though a host of bills, several of which warrant urgent attention of the law-makers, are waiting for their introduction in Parliament for their final nod, no bills related to health and pharma sectors will be discussed during the ongoing budget session of Parliament which began on July 7.

According to sources in Parliament, no bills related to health and pharma sectors have found a place in the tentative list of government legislative and financial business expected to be taken up during the second session of sixteenth Lok Sabha which will be in session till August 14.  A total of 11 new bills have been earmarked for their introduction during the more than a month-long session in which both the Railway and General budgets will be presented by the respective ministers.

This practically means that all the Bills in pharma and health sectors like the NBRA Bill, ART Bill, HIV/AIDS Bill, Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research on Human Subjects Bill, Central Drug Authority (CDA) Bill, Medical Devices Bill, etc have to wait for the winter session of Parliament for their introduction in Parliament. The winter session of Parliament is expected to begin sometime in November.

Among these bills, the NBRA Bill that seeks to establish Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India to regulate research, import, transport, use of organisms and product produced from modern biotechnology has repeatedly been finding a place in the tentative list for transaction of business for the last several sessions of Parliament. The Bill also seeks to make NBRA as an independent, autonomous, statutory agency to safeguard the health and safety of the people of India and to protect the environment by identifying risks posed by, or as a result of, modern biotechnology, and managing those risks through regulating the safe development and deployment of biotechnology products and processes in the country.

Another bill, which was in fact almost through, was the CDA Bill which was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in August last year and then was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee. The panel, which submitted its report in December, has virtually turned down most of the main proposals, putting the government in a spot to redraft the bill.

The long pending HIV/AIDS Bill, which seeks to stop the discrimination against the people living with HIV, was introduced in Rajya Sabha in February this year, thus making it alive though the term of the Parliament ended without passing it. As the Bill has been introduced in the Rajya Sabha, it would not lapse even though the term of the Lok Sabha came to an end and a new team has come to power. It is now expected to go to the parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare for their recommendations.