Draft policy that seeks to control drug prices by Dec end

FE reports

The draft of the much-awaited new pharmaceutical policy that focuses on controlling prices of essential drugs has been finalised and would be sent to the Cabinet by this month-end, chemicals and fertiliser Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Friday.

“The Satwant Reddy Committee has submitted its report and we will be sending it to the Cabinet for approval by the end of this month,” he said on the sidelines of GlassTech International expo.

Asked about the differences with the industry on the mechanism of bringing down prices of 354 drugs under the National List of Essential Medicines, Paswan said the ministry has favoured the price control route. “We have proposed the price control model in the draft, but ultimately the Cabinet will decide,” he said.

The ministry and the pharma industry have been at loggerheads over ways to make medicines affordable to the common man as per a Supreme Court order.