DoP begins consultations to finalise national pharma policy

The department of pharmaceuticals is kicking off the process of finalising the draft national pharmaceutical policy by holding a meeting on June 23 with pharma industry associations. Civil society groups who came to know about the meeting cried foul at what they saw as a deliberate attempt to exclude them from the consultations. However, DoP secretary Jai Priye Prakash responded to a TOI query on the issue saying that there would be a separate meeting in mid-July with such groups before putting the draft policy in the public domain for comments.

A letter dated June 16 from the DoP invited the industry associations to a conference on June 23 “to discuss the draft pharmaceutical policy which the government intends to announce soon”. Each association was invited to be “one of the speakers from the industry to give the key take away address”.

The associations invited included the Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India, Confederation of Indian Industries and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries. The conference also includes secretaries of the health and environment ministries and of the departments of revenue as well as industrial policy and promotion. The chairperson of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority will also be part of the conference.

Several items on the agenda of the conference, such as pricing and intellectual property are issues which are before the SC, raising the question of how the DoP will deal with these. The National Human Rights Commission too is hearing a petition on accessibility to medicines.