Drug price control not a threat to companies: Paswan

New Delhi, May 27 (UNI) The government today lashed out on the pharmaceutical firms for complaining against drug price control, saying the industry is still making huge profits and there was no threat of any company closing down.

''In a situation where the profit margins are as high as 200 per cent, there is no possibility of any company closing its manufacturing business due to the price control mechanism of the government,'' Union Minister for Chemical and Fertiliser Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters here.

He was replying to a query on the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA) asking the government to revise the ceiling prices of 33 bulk drugs keeping in mind the appreciating dollar against rupee.

IDMA had written to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) saying bulk drug manufacturers were not in a position to put up with uneconomic prices and they will have to stop the supplies of the same very soon.

He asserted that the UPA government was bound by its commitments made in the Common Minimum Programme and not ''by any company or its profit''.

At a time when government introduced the price control mechanism for 74 drugs, which constituted around 50 per cent of the domestic pharmaceutical market, similar speculation were made which later proved wrong, he added.

''That time also, there were speculation that it would ruin the industry but it didn't happen,'' he said.

He added that price controlled medicines currently accounts for less than a quarter of the total pharmaceutical produce in the country and the speculations are bound to be prove wrong again.

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