Question : New Drug Policy

Will the Minister of CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government proposes to formulate a new drug policy to provide life saving drugs at affordable prices;
(b) if so, the details thereof along with the time by which the said policy is likely to be made effective;
(c) whether the Government has received the report of the task force constituted under the Chairmanship of Dr. Pronab Sen on Drug Pricing Control and if so, the details thereof; and
(d) the details of recommendation made by the task force on Drug Pricing Control and the action taken by the Government thereon?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS; MINISTRY OF SHIPPING AND MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS (SHRI MANSUKH L. MANDAVIYA)

(a) & (b): At present there is no concrete proposal of a new drug policy at Governmental level. A discussion draft eliciting the basic contents that should go into a draft pharmaceutical policy was discussed amongst some stakeholders which included:
• Making essential drugs accessible at affordable prices to the common masses;
• Providing a longer term stable policy environment for the Pharmaceutical sector;
• Making India sufficiently self-reliant in end to end indigenous drug manufacturing;
• Ensuring world class quality of drugs for domestic consumption & exports;
• Creating an environment for R&D to produce innovator drugs;
• Ensuring growth and development of the Indian Pharma Industry.

It was a preliminary discussion and no timeline has been fixed in this regard.

(c): In November, 2004 the Government set up a Task Force under the Chairmanship of Dr. Pronab Sen, Principal Advisor, erstwhile Planning Commission, to look into the issue of price control, option other than price control and other issues and to make recommendations for making available life saving drugs. The Pronab Sen Committee submitted its recommendation in September, 2005.
(d): The Task Force had recommended that the price regulation should be on the basis of essentiality of the drugs and it should be applied only for formulations and not to upstream products such as bulk drugs. The Department of Pharmaceuticals prepared a draft National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy, 2011 (NPPP-2011) based on the criteria of essentiality on which comments were received from various stakeholders and the same was placed before the Group of Ministers (GoM). Based on the recommendations of the GoM, National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Policy-2012(NPPP-2012) was formulated for controlling and regulating the prices of medicines of specified dosages and strengths as under National List of Essential Medicines-2011. NPPP-2012 was placed before the Cabinet and after its approval by the Cabinet on 22.11.2012, NPPP-2012 was notified on 07.12.2012. Subsequently, the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013 (DPCO, 2013) was also notified.

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