SATISFACTORY AVAILABILITY OF ALLOPATHIC DRUGS AND PHARMACEUTICALS
IN THE COUNTRY: S. S. DHINDSA
CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE OF
THE MINISTRY OF
CHEMICALS &
FERTILIZERS MEETS
Minister
for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri S. S. Dhindsa said that availability
position of allopathic drugs and pharmaceuticals in the country
is by and large satisfactory and demand is being met. There has
been no report of general shortage of medicines in the country
in the last two years. In the event of temporary shortage of individual
drugs, substitutes of equivalent therapeutic value are available
in the market, he added. Shri Dhindsa was addressing the Consultative
Committee Meeting attached to the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers,
here today. The agenda for the meeting was "Availability and Prices
of Drugs".
The members of the Consultative Committee discussed
the "Pharmaceutical Policy – 2002" which was recently announced
by the Government. The new Policy prescribes the span of price
control on pharmaceuticals in a transparent and objective manner.
According to this policy, items appearing in the National Essential
Drug List of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and other
items considered important by that Ministry from the point of
view of their use in various Health Programmes in emergency care
etc. (with the exclusion of sera and vaccines, blood products
etc.) would form the total basket out of which selection of bulk
drugs would be made for price regulation in accordance with the
criteria laid down therein.
The Pharmaceutical Policy-2002 provides for monitoring
of prices of decontrolled and formulation by National Pharmaceutical
Pricing Authority (NPPA). The Policy proposes to strengthen the
NPPA by providing appropriate powers under the DPCO which would
make it mandatory for the manufacturer to furnish all information
as called for by NPPA. NPPA will also have powers to regulate
such prices, wherever required. The NPPA has been monitoring the
prices of medicines under the price decontrolled category. Since
there is a large number of medicines marketed in the country and
large number of companies involved in manufacturing, the NPPA
is involving State Drug Control machinery in monitoring. Shortage
is monitored through a system in which the State Drug Controllers
send reports to the Government as well as NPPA as and when it
occurs. NPPA takes up the matter with the concerned manufacturers
to rush supply to the destination concerned. The companies confirm
the action taken to NPPA and the concerned State Drug Controller.
The members also discussed issues pertaining
to the availability, price fixation, research and development
in the pharmaceutical sector. The members who attended the meeting
were Shri A. C. Jose, Shri Baju Ban Riyan and Shri Y. S. Vivekananda
Reddy (Lok Sabha); Shri Manoj Bhattacharya (Rajya Sabha).
