India's New Drug Policy "Imminent"

India's Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister, Ram lakham Singh Yadav, says the long-awaited new drug policy will be announced before August 15, ending two years of uncertainty and indecision. While foreign investors are awaiting the announcement they are not the sole targets of the new policy, he said; its delicensing features will be equally geared to encouraging the Indian sector to invest. India's last drug policy was announced in 1986.

The new policy is not expected to cover controlled drugs and their prices. There has been no consensus on the size of the basket of price-controlled drugs among government oficials, so it has reportedly been decided to defer this part of the policy document.

Rather, the two main planks of the policy are expected to be industry delicensing and incentives for basic research. Delicensing has been under consideration in the context of the industry policy of 1991, which placed the entire drug sector under compulsory licensing. Another major change is expected to be a cut in the number of drugs reserved for public-sector production. 15 products are currently reserved, under the 1986 policy.