— Photo: P. V. Sivakumar

SHOWCASING INDIA'S STRENGTH: Amit Mitra, Secretary-General of FICCI (extreme right), greets D. B. Mody, Chairman of Pharmexcil, at the Healthcare conference in Hyderabad on Thursday. EVKS Elangovan, Union Minister of State for Commerce (second from right) and Satwant Reddy, Secretary, Ministry of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, look on.

HYDERABAD: An inter-ministerial committee headed by the Union Chemicals and Petrochemicals Secretary, Satwant Reddy, is looking at providing the necessary legal framework for data protection in the case of drugs and agro-chemicals and the committee is likely to submit its report shortly.

Meanwhile, the Union Government has decided to come out with a new comprehensive national pharmaceutical policy to ensure development of vibrant and growth-oriented pharma industry. The policy, in advanced stages of completion, will be announced either by the month-end or next month.

According to Ms. Reddy, an important plank of the new policy will be introduction of a health insurance scheme for poor families that are unable to afford the cost of medicines. The initiative would provide accessibility of medicines to the poor, who constitute 26 per cent of the population, living below poverty line, she said.

Health insurance scheme

She was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the International Pharma and Health Conference of India, Africa, ASEAN and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries here on Thursday.

Ms. Reddy said the Government was proposing to lay down a Special Access Programme for anti-cancer and anti-HIV/AIDS drugs in a public-private-partnership (PPP) mode for helping in substantially reducing the cost of these drugs. A proposal to provide interest subsidy for funding implementation of Schedule M for GMP (general medical practitioners) was also under consideration. In addition, plans were under way to ensure that the maximum retail price (MRP) on drugs included all the taxes as in the case of other packaged goods.

The Government was also examining the feasibility of reviving public sector pharma companies to ensure adequate availability of essential medicines at affordable prices. Of drugs worth around Rs. 3,000-crore supplied to State-owned healthcare centres, the Government was planning to procure at least Rs. 300 crore worth drugs from the pharma PSUs as part of their revival scheme.

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