Even though a host of bills, several of which warrant urgent attention of the law-makers, have been waiting for introduction in Parliament for final nod, no bills related to health and pharma sectors will be discussed during the ongoing Budget session of Parliament.

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 businesses expected to be taken up during the ongoing fourth session of sixteenth Lok Sabha which began on February 23 and subject to the exigencies of the government business will conclude on May 8, 2015.  The Budget session will be held in two phases. The first phase will be from February 23 till March 20, 2015 and the second phase from April 20 till May 8, 2015. There will be 20 working days during the first phase and 13 in the second phase.

A total of 17 new bills have been earmarked for their introduction during this session in which both the Railway Budget and the General Budget will be presented by the respective ministers.

This practically means that all the Bills in pharma and health sectors like the Drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Bill, 2015, NBRA Bill, ART Bill, HIV/AIDS Bill, Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research on Human Subjects Bill, etc will have to wait for the next 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.