'No time frame can be given for implementation of NPPP, 2011'

NEW DELHI: The government today said no time frame can be given for implementation of draft National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy, 2011 as it is awaiting the response from the concerned ministries and stakeholders.

"No definite time frame can be indicated, as feedback on the draft policy has been asked from various ministries, departments of the Government of India and stakeholders by 30.11.2011," minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers Srikant Kumar Jena said in a reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

Thereafter, the final draft policy would be prepared considering the feedback, he added.

The draft NPPP, 2011 proposes to regulate prices of drug formulations only, unlike the existing principle of controlling prices of specified bulk drugs and their formulations as adopted in the drug policy, 1994.

The draft policy also seeks to bring 60 per cent of total domestic pharmaceutical market under price control. The draft policy proposed that all the 348 drugs specified in the National List of Essential Medicines 2011 will be under price control.