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AIOCD expresses reservations over trade aspects of draft pharma policy
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Laxmi Yadav, Mumbai
August 30 , 2017
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The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) has
expressed reservations over several provisions related to pharmaceutical
trade in the draft pharmaceutical policy released by the Department of
Pharmaceuticals (DoP) recently.
Issues such as capping trade
margins, implementation of e-Pharmacy and e-Prescription and bar code
containing price information on drugs in the draft policy have evoked
sharp criticism from the trade body.
The Drugs and Cosmetics Act
has not mentioned e-pharmacy and e-prescription. The government first
needs to introduce amendment to the Act to pave way for implementation
of e-pharmacy and e-prescription. The stakeholders like trade body
should be taken into confidence before making any amendment to the Act
in this regard. We have time and again opposed the implementation of
e-pharmacy unless the requisite infrastructure facility is put in place,
said Suresh Gupta, general secretary of AIOCD.
He said “The Act
was drafted at a time when e-retail was in practice. An ecosystem needs
to be created to encourage tech based distribution systems. A robust
tracing and tracking system should be put in place to monitor drugs
which are sold online without a prescription and in what quantity.”
The
draft also focused on promoting generic drugs. To aid and assist the
registered medical practitioners in prescribing medicines in the generic
names, e-prescription will be put into operation whereby the
prescriptions will be computerised and the medicine name will be picked
up from a drop down menu of salt names.
The e-prescription
provision has not gone down well with the AIOCD. A significant number of
retailers in rural areas are not equipped with adequate IT
infrastructure. They do not have consistent access to the internet. How
can e-prescription work there? he asked.
The trade body also criticized the draft policy's focus on regulating trade margins to make drugs more affordable for people.
“For
this, the government should lower the prices of medicines rather than
curtailing trade margins. This will pose a threat to survival of
traders. We have appealed to the government to provide wholesalers a
margin of 10 per cent margin and retailers a margin of 20 per cent. The
AIOCD had sent a proposal to NPPA long time back seeking a margin of 35
per cent for retailers on generic drugs and 15 per cent margin for
wholesalers,” he added. In generics, there are a margin of more than 100
per cent.
According to the draft,“The issue of unreasonable
trade margins and bonus offers by various stockists, distributors and
retailers has been adversely affecting both the industry as well as
consumer interest. After detailed stakeholder consultations, the level
of trade margins will be prescribed to create a level playing field for
the industry and to bring down the prices.” It also states that
institutions that procure directly from manufacturers will also be
subject to this regulation.
Appreciating the policy's
recommendation on “one company–one drug–one brand name–one price to
cripple pharmaceutical companies' marketing strategies to manufacture
the same drug at different prices and brand names, Gupta said due to
lacunae in policy, varied categories of drugs like ethical, generic,
branded generic containing the same molecule are priced differently by
the companies. We have long demanded that NPPA should look into the
different prices of drugs made of the similar molecule, he said.
In
the pharmaceutical industry, about 2,500 pharmacopoeial salts are
manufactured but there are more than 60,000 brand names with varying
prices.
The draft policy's emphasis on compulsory provision of
static bar code containing price information on drugs has received sharp
response from the AIOCD. The draft says bar code reading and
computerized billing will be introduced in pharmaceutical distribution
and retailing.
We have extended support to barcoding on products
in domestic market. It will help the government create authentic
database on pharmaceutical sector containing details on manufacturer
wise, brand wise products and product wise, brand wise manufacturers and
will do away need for e-portal. We are against barcoding containing
price information on drugs, he concluded.
The draft policy also
laid down several other policy prescriptions that include enhancing
quality standards, faster approvals, giving a boost to indigenous
manufacturing and encouraging research and development, reducing
dependence on China for raw materials.
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