 "Govt to create separate ministry for pharma in one year: Ananth Kumar")
The government will establish a separate ministry for pharmaceutical and medical devices in one year, said Ananth Kumar, union minister of chemicals and fertlisers, on Wednesday.
"I want to see pharmaceutical and medical devices become a separate ministry. We are already in touch with PMO and are pursuing (to ensure) that it becomes a separate ministry. I assure you in next one year it will emerge as a separate entity as pharma and medical devices ministry," Kumar said at an event organised by Phd Chamber of Commerce.
The minister added the government will implement the Katoch panel recommendations within 100 days to cut bulk drug imports from China. "We have already accepted it, it is in circulation. We are having discussions with the PMO also, to implement some of the recommendations. Even if we have to go to the Cabinet, we will go," the minister said, terming the pharmaceutical sector as the 'sunshine industry'.
The government had set set up a committee headed by V M Katoch, the then Secretary, Health Research, to suggest ways to reduce the dependence on bulk drug imports from China and to intensively promote domestic production.
India currently meets about 80 per cent of its demand of bulk drugs or active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), used as raw materials by the pharmaceutical industry, from Chinese imports.
According to pharmaceutical secretary V K Subburaj, it was the intervention by the Prime Minister's office that fast-tracked the process of issuing a bulk drug policy. "We already had three meetings with the PMO. In a meeting next week, the policy is likely to be finalized," Subburaj said. "We had a meeting with existing API manufacturers and for them reduction of interest rates is a major issue. The government is considering this concern."
According to him, in China, the interest rate is just 5 per cent, while here it is above 12 per cent. He added that the government is also coming up with six bulk drug parks across the country. Additionally, the minister ruled out doing away with the price control on essential and life savings drugs. However, he assured that industry will continue to be consulted on the price-control issue. He further said the government, for the betterment of people, is in the process of revising the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) 2011.
"It is the health ministry's mandate to make the NLEM list. They are improving the list and we have also given our points to them as to what should be added in the list. Blood pressure, cardiac, cancer, HIV/AIDS medicines should be added," Kumar said.