The government has completed the draft formulation of the National Drug Policy, and would release it within two weeks.Addressing a pharmaceutical conference of India and the Commonwealth of Independent States here today, ministry of chemicals and fertilisers joint secretary G S Sandhu said: "Currently, we are dealing with the Part B of the policy involving cost control of life saving drugs. There are 74 such drugs and its formulations under cost control, which comprise 25% of the market. We are looking at two options for reforms. One within the current cost regime or a different regime wherein the weighted average of the top three drugs would be considered for fixing the price."On patented drugs, he said the department was looking at a price negotiation system to be carried out by an expert commitee or the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA)."We are studying the system followed by various countries like Australia, Canada and France who have a well defined system," he said.
