Prime Minister’s Office to have final say on FDI in pharma

25 Jul 2012 Evaluate

Amid prolonged inter-ministerial squabbling over crucial components of the new policy, the ball is now thrown in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) court, who would take a final call on the norms for allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in the pharmaceutical sector. After reaching at final consensus at a meeting held on July 24, which was attended by the officials of the Departments of pharmaceutical, health, DIPP and the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) , the recommendation have been now passed on to PMO for final approval. The meeting was attended by officials from these departments, where various views on imposition of specific conditions on foreign investors, were considered.

Worried over the continued delay in giving shape to a new document, the PMO, had recently wrote to finance and industry ministries seeking a progress report on implementation of the changes in the foreign direct investment policy in the pharmaceutical sector, which was finalized nine months ago.

The issue of relaxing FDI norms in the pharmaceutical sector has been long pending because of bitter spat between the Finance Ministry and DIPP, with the latter vouching for 100% FDI via Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) route, while the former seeking a FDI cap at 49% in the pharmaceutical sector. The Finance Ministry’s special group has suggested that it could consider permitting up to 49% FDI in the automatic route for Brownfield investments in pharmaceuticals sector, given the company’s management control remains in Indian hands.

Denying availability of cheaper drugs in the domestic market, the government had back in November, tightened the policy to ensure that sector is not controlled by foreign companies, only to mull over its traditional 10 year old policy, which now seems estranged after the series of acquisition.

© 2026 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×