India Passes Last Hurdle For Drug Policy Reform

The last hurdle before the announcement of India's new drug policy has been removed with the approval of the annual turnover limit for a price control mechanism by the Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao. At a high-level meeting late last month, Mr Rao finalized a 40 million rupees ($1.3 million) turnover limit as the criterion for including drugs under price control, as against the 5 million rupees limit at present.

In setting the revenue limit at 40 million rupees, the new policy will reduce the number of price-controlled drugs from the current 142 to 73.

The contentious issue of drug pricing has been delaying the new policy (Marketletters passim). Now it appears certain that the new policy will be announced shortly. Then, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs will have cleared the report for making it public, comments the Marketletter's New Delhi correspondent.