Indian Minister clarifies drug policy

India's federal Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, has clarified that the new draft pharmaceuticals pricing policy (Marketletters passim) will cover an additional 8% of the country's retail market and not 50%-70% as suggested by some quarters of the industry.

"The drug industry is spreading a canard...The span of control would, in fact, increase from the current 25% to 33%. It is also not true the prices of all drugs to be freshly brought under price control would come down by 30%-70%," claimed Mr Paswan in a statement. The draft policy is currently being vetted by concerned ministries, including finance and health, and would be put up to the federal cabinet soon for approval, he said.

An official of the Ministry said there is no basis for drugmakers' contention that their net profit would fall from 9% to 5% under the new formula (Marketletter July 24). "The 74 drugs currently under control have over 1,500 formulations and about 20,000 pack sizes. As against there are only 400 formulations and 7,000-8,000 pack sizes of the new specified strengths of over 300 essential drugs (to be brought under price control)," he said.