Inter-ministerial panel to consider control of patented drug pricing

27 Jun 2013 Evaluate

An inter-ministerial panel which may comprise members from various government departments like department of pharmaceuticals, ministry of health and family welfare, department of industrial policy and promotion and department of commerce is likely to decide soon on the issue of controlling expensive patented drugs prices in the country.

The panel formation was necessitated after the government put in place a new market based method to control prices of 348 essential drugs last month.  As per the pharma department, the panel on the patented drug pricing issue will consult other ministries such as health, DIPP and commerce and a decision on modalities for this would be finalised soon. Presently, there is no mechanism to regulate prices of patented drugs in India.

Earlier in March, an internal committee from department of pharma suggested that the prices of patented drug should be adjusted by taking into account, India's purchasing power parity and to be linked to rates at which governments of UK, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand procure these patented medicines from innovator drug firms. However, the suggestion was rejected because of limitations, as the proposed mechanism would apply only to medicines bought through public procurement and health insurance companies, which was not liked by the public health activists and drug regulatory experts. Further, the committee suggestion also came against linking the marketing approval of a patented drug with prices fixed for procurement citing fears that such a move may threaten availability of such drugs in the country. 

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