The Hindu Business Line : Price control eclipsing public health?

Mumbai, Sept 30 Is public health being eclipsed by price control? That is the concern raised by health advocacy workers at the recent Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting on the proposed pharmaceutical policy. Discussions on the drug policy seem to centre largely on medicine prices, they said, urging the Government to put public health back on the agenda.

It is not just about curbing medicines prices, access to medicines is just as crucial and involves ensuring production, improved distribution and review of consumption, said Dr Mira Shiva, on her submission to the GoM earlier this month. Dr Shiva is coordinator of the All India Drug Action Network and at the GoM, she represented the Voluntary Health Association of India with which she had been associated for over 27 years, she told Business Line.

The proposed pharmaceutical policy is made from the viewpoint of trade, though 80 per cent of medicines are bought by consumers out of pocket, she said.

Production incentive

There is a list of essential drugs that cover a large percentage of health issues occurring in the country.

By putting these critical medicines under price control, the Centre is inadvertently giving a disincentive to industry, she observed. Instead, the Government should give incentive for medicine making, even as it checks that the medicines are not outrageously priced, she added.

The Centre should ensure there is a constant supply of the essential drugs, that their distribution is widespread and that the consumption patterns of these medicines are reviewed, she said. By merely controlling medicine prices, companies end up not producing the medicine and that hurts consumers, she added.

Though health-advocacy workers and pharmaceutical companies do not often see eye-to-eye, Dr Shiva’s suggestions are finding favour with drug-makers, who also have argued for less price control and improved procurement of drugs from companies to keep them affordable to consumers.

Check on selling tactics

Dr Shiva also addressed the marketing practices used to sell medicines. At the World Health Assembly meet earlier this year, a resolution on the rational use of drugs had been passed, and regulating drug promotion was a component of this resolution, she said.

The proposed pharma policy too should be comprehensive and cover access-related issues such as bulk procurement, quality control, rational use, safety and prescription-based consumption, besides cracking down on unethical marketing practices, she said.

Bemoaning the country’s low health-spend at 0.9 per cent of GDP, she said that when the country is projecting growth at over 8-9 per cent, such a low health-spend is not acceptable.

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