The Hindu Business Line : Fallout of case in Supreme Court on price control

FOR an industry that is spilt wide open between the domestic players and multinationals on issues of Intellectual Property Rights and Data Exclusivity - parleys are underway in the pharmaceutical industry to sink differences and speak in a single voice on the issue of price control, an issue that would touch the life of the consumer, as much as it would impact industry.

Against the backdrop of the litigation pending in the Supreme Court on the Drug Policy and the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), which controls the price of medicines - the pharma industry is "exploring the possibility" of expressing in a single voice, its concern on the pricing of medicines, pharma association representatives told Business Line.

``If a large section of drugs are brought under price control, companies may end up not producing it, as it becomes unviable for them. This would hurt the consumer. Besides, with domestic production being affected, the country would have to depend on imports and this would be a difficult scenario for the Government, in terms of monitoring prices. And if drugs are imported at high prices and the Government attempts to keep prices at accessible levels, the importing company may well stop importing and this would deprive consumers of modern drugs,'' observe pharma analysts.

In its recent directive, the apex court had asked the Ministry of Health to provide the Essential Drug List to the court this week. In fact, pending a decision from the court, the Drug Policy 2002 may also be reviewed.

This entire debate on the Drug Policy and the DPCO was precipitated by a public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the Karnataka High Court that apprehended that reducing the span of control on drugs would make it inaccessible to the masses.

``The Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA), a forum for the domestic pharma companies and the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), an MNC platform, are considering the options in front of them on how to put the issue of pricing in perspective. In fact, they are even exploring the possibility of filing joint or individual petitions in the Apex Court to bring in more inputs on the issue,'' an industry association representative revealed, strictly on conditions of anonymity. If these efforts fructify, even the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), comprising the big-guns of the domestic pharma industry are expected to join in, the official said, underlining that ``the industry still has diverse opinions and a final decision had still to been taken.''

Price of medicines being an emotional issue, the industry points out that the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) could always intervene in the event of an uncharacteristic rise in prices. ``The attempt should be to exercise better price management, rather than price control - for, this can make drugs accessible to the consumer, besides keeping a check on drug price, if market-forces don't succeed in doing so,'' they opine.

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