New pharma policy

                              Government to work on new pharma policy

The government will soon come up with a new pharma policy to counter the excessive controls thwarting competitiveness and innovation in the sector.

The policy could feature significant and important features including the following:

• Disbanding of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) in its current form, delinking price control of essential medicines. Prices could be regulated only in case when required thereby leading to more flexibility.
• Licenses of periodic renewal would also be scrapped for manufacturing and sale of drugs and would be given till perpetuity.
• The Health Ministry would also work on a process of third party certification and self certification on an annual basis.

All the above measures would essentially lead to improved ease of doing business and help in realising the full potential of the pharma sector. It has been felt that excessive controls are discouraging investments in the sector. Also, India has lost its bulk and intermediate drugs market to China.

The Indian pharma sector has the potential of reaching US$ 55 bn from the level of US$ 20 bn in 2015. Improving the ease of doing business would lead to more investments in the sector.