The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)’s pull-out from the United Progressive Alliance government may delay the proposed pricing policy for patented products. The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), under the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers, which was so far headed by DMK member M K Alagiri, is unlikely to move ahead with the draft policy in the absence of a minister.
The DoP, which is awaiting views of all the stakeholders on the proposed patented drug pricing policy, would need the minister’s consent before going forward with the draft policy. The stakeholders’ comments on the recommendations of a committee on the proposed policy would come by March 31. The committee has recommended that the government negotiate prices of patented drugs with pharmaceutical companies based on reference pricing of other countries.
Patented drugs are mostly sold by multinational companies in India such as Novartis, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals.
“Besides comments from stakeholders, the proposed policy may also require approval from other ministries such as health, commerce and law,” an official said. According to the official, the department would also need to evaluate comments before it moves to the Cabinet. “In the absence of a Union Minister, a lot of approvals required in the process may get stalled causing delay to the policy,” he added.
However, Alagiri signed the new Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO) just before resigning from the ministry, the official said. This move would help the government implement the new pharmaceutical pricing policy aimed at expanding the span of price control to 348 medicines. “DPCO has been sent to the law ministry for vetting,” the official said.
Once approved by the law ministry, the new DPCO would be notified by the department with a reasonable window period for the industry to bring it into effect.
The new DPCO will replace the existing DPCO, 1995. It is expected to lay standard norms and procedures to be followed by the industry as well as the regulator for fixing and monitoring prices of medicines in the country. However, patented drugs are exempted from this order as the government decided to frame a separate policy for such medicines. But in view of the looming uncertainty of the government, patented drugs may continue to remain expensive.
