CII plans PR to help drug industry image

The Confederation of Indian Industry plans to initiate a pharmaceutical media campaign and public relations exercise in order to improve the industry's image, reports Pharmabiz.com in India. It has appointed a panel, comprising drug industry leaders, which would approach member companies to collect views and produce a CII position paper as soon as possible.

The CII national committee on life sciences has also created a "policy task group" to focus on the drug policy issues, primarily relating to pricing. The move is seen by critics as another attempt to delay the proposed national pharmaceutical policy, which is stuck in ministerial discussions and unlikely to be finalized during the regime of the current government, the newswire notes. According to Pharmabiz.com, members of the CII are of the view that there is no control on the price of pharmaceutical raw materials and note that the cost of medicines as the percentage of overall health care spending is low, at just 15%. They also pointed out that drugmakers were even selling their finished products at a price much lower than that of the raw materials used.

Meantime, the Indian subsidiaries of drug multinationals say they are bracing themselves for the tough economic environment facing their parent companies, reports the local Hindu Business Line.