It is unfortunate that after seven long years of delay and repeated Supreme Court prodding for a quick decision, the government cleared a pharmaceutical pricing policy that will only bring down the cost of essential drugs by a token few rupees. The only good thing is that instead of 78 essential drugs earlier, there are now 348 drugs on the “essential” list. Analysts say the new pricing policy will erode barely 2.3 per cent of the `67,500-crore industry’s revenues.
The right to affordable essential medicines is the right of every individual, particularly the poor, including daily wage earners and contract workers. With the new policy making little or no difference, the violation of this right to life has now become “official”, say some groups that are fighting for the right to affordable healthcare.
The comprehensive drug pricing policy was approved by the group of ministers headed by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. It sat on it for seven years, and in the interim period it allowed drug companies to earn huge profits and to lobby the government to ensure a “watered-down” policy. That is exactly what has happened. The GoM owes an explanation to the people on this delay, and why it changed the pricing formula from weighted average pricing to the simple (market-based) average pricing formula. The Supreme Court had, on a petition filed by the All-India Drug Action Network, suggested a cost-based pricing formula. Perhaps during the final hearing on November 27, the Supreme Court will deliver a verdict that will protect the aam aadmi.