Indian government to work on new pharma policy
The Indian government will soon come up with
a new pharma policy to counter the excessive controls thwarting competitiveness
and innovation in the sector.
According to a posting by Brand India Pharma,
an initiative led by Pharmexcil (Pharmaceutical Export Promotion
Council) and IBEF
(India Brand Equity Foundation), the policy could include
significant and important features including the following:
• Disbanding of the National Pharmaceutical
Pricing Authority (NPPA) in its current form, delinking price control of
essential medicines. Prices could be regulated only in case when required
thereby leading to more flexibility.
• Licenses of periodic renewal would also be
scrapped for manufacturing and sale of drugs and would be given till
perpetuity.
• The Health Ministry would also work on a
process of third party certification and self certification on an annual basis.
All the above measures would essentially lead
to improved ease of doing business and help in realizing the full potential of
the pharma sector. It has been felt that excessive controls are discouraging
investments in the sector. Also, India has lost its bulk and intermediate drugs
market to China.
The Indian pharma sector has the potential of
reaching $55 billion from the level of $20 billion in 2015. Improving the ease
of doing business would lead to more investments in the sector, says Brand
India Pharma. The sector has attracted foreign investment worth $14 billion
since 2000 and it is the sixth-largest recipient of foreign direct investment
(FDI) across all industry categories.
The NPPA was set up as an independent drug
price regulator in 1997 and currently over 450 medicines are under price
control. According to The Economic Times of India, a senior government official
said henceforth, the right to regulate prices as and when required would rest
with the government.
“Drug
price control order may be delinked from the national list of essential
medicines and, the NPPA, in its present form and current function may be wound
up and deployed in the department of pharmaceuticals with a new mandate,”
the official said.
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