Cheaper drugs on the anvil: Ram Vilas Paswan

New Delhi, Nov 14: The government today said that draft policy on drug pricing is being readied to be placed before the Cabinet, a move that would enable availability of quality drugs at reasonable prices and facilitate investments in the pharma sector.

''The government is making sincere efforts and aspires that Indian pharma industry will grow to a level of 20-25 billion dollars in next five years by its significant initiative through the drug policy,'' Union Chemical and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters here.

The government is committed to provide all necessary support to ensure that the industry emerges as a global leader and at the same time the people below the poverty line get access to drugs at reasonable prices, he added.

The policy proposals envisage an increased support of the government in R&D. Besides, the government proposes to set up district Drug Banks where medicines will be provided free of cost to the poor.

Expressing his anguish over the non-implementation of pricing policy voluntarily undertaken by the pharma companies, he said that ''the ball is now in the industry's court''.

''Based on the report to be given by the committee on November 30, we will put a draft policy before the Cabinet so that a future course of action can be decided upon,'' Mr Paswan said.

He reiterated his warning that the government will not hesitate to take stringent actions against those who backtrack from their commitment to reduce prices of essential drugs.

The pharmaceutical industry, however, said that the implementation of price-cut in generic drugs, which constitute only five per cent of the domestic medicine market, will be implemented on the new stock of drugs and not the existing ones.

The industry submitted a list of 886 drugs to the government and said that they would impose a cap of 15 per cent on the wholesale margins and 35 per cent on the retail margins.

In view of the much-needed R&D investments, the industry also demanded enhancement of tax incentives to cover depreciation on investments made in land and building for dedicated research facilities.

UNI