Govt to finalise pharma FDI policy before FIPB meet

01 Jul 2013 Evaluate

The government is likely to finalise the policy on foreign direct investments (FDI) in the pharmaceuticals sector ahead of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) meeting on July 5, which is scheduled to take up around 10 foreign investment proposals. The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), along with the health ministry and department of pharmaceuticals likely to discuss the issue, which has been haunting the pharma sector for a long time.

The government is concerned over the continuing acquisitions of Indian pharma firms by foreign companies, which would pose serious problems in availability of life-saving drugs to consumers in near future. Further, following fears that Indians will be denied cheap medicines if multinational continued to buy big companies, the government had made a distinction between greenfield and brownfield projects in last year. However, in May, DIPP, the nodal ministry for the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy, asked FIPB not to clear any of the pharma sector proposals on concerns over ownership and production of essential medicines.

Now, the government has decided to introduce safeguards to ensure that MNCs acquiring domestic firms will not stop producing essential drugs. Currently, India permits 100 per cent FDI in pharmaceutical sector through automatic approval route in the new projects but the foreign investment in the existing pharmaceutical companies are allowed only through FIPB's approval. There are too many pharma proposals pending with the FIPB as several global pharma companies are looking to buy stake in Indian firms.

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