The Hindu Business Line : Govt to set up drug banks in 600 districts

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Govt to set up drug banks in 600 districts

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Industry commits Rs 45 cr free medicines annually.

New Delhi , Sept. 23

The Government will set up district-level drug banks in the approximately 600 districts across the country in public-private partnership (PPP).

It will also place a proposal before the Cabinet to allot Rs 3,000 crore for health insurance of the 26 crore below-poverty-line (BPL) population, the Minister for Chemicals, Fertilisers and Steel, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, announced here on Saturday after a meeting of the Pharma Advisory Forum.

Mr Paswan also said that his Ministry had written to the Prime Minister for an across-the-board reduction of excise duty on drugs from the present 16 per cent to 8 per cent.

He said efforts would be made to make the drug banks for the BPL population operational from January 26, 2007.

The Minister said the Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industries (CIPI) had made a commitment that its members would provide free medicines equivalent to 0.5 per cent of their turnover for this purpose.

There are around 5,000 small-scale drug-manufacturing units accounting for 30 per cent by value of the total estimated value of Rs 9,000 crore.

Similar announcements were expected from other pharma associations in the near future, he said.

This would make available medicines worth Rs 45 crore annually, Ministry officials said.

The free drug would be distributed among the districts on the basis of high-occurring diseases, they said.

The Minister said t the proposal for having a uniform minimum retail price (MRP) inclusive of all taxes would become effective from October 2 this year.

On profit margins, the Minister said the industry had agreed to cap trade margins on generic-generic and branded-generic drugs at a minimum of 15 per cent for wholesalers and 35 per cent for retailers. As a result, prices of these drugs would come down between 2 and 70 per cent, he said.

The Minister also said the 14-member industry-Government Joint Committee set up last month to review the provisions of price control before finalising the national drug policy had already had three meetings and would be submitting its report by the end of this month.

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