Pharma policy in judicial tangle

NEW DELHI: Plunging the implementation of the pharmaceutical policy ‘02, into a further spell of uncertainty, the Bangalore High Court today reserved its orders on government’s affidavit challenging the court’s May 31 ex parte interim order staying operation of the policy for 10 weeks.
With the bench comprising the chief justice not fixing the date for hearing, reserving of the order would result in virtual extension of the stay even beyond August 15, when the stay was to lapse, sources said.
The order deprives the government of the authority to enforce the pharma policy and the issuing of a revised Drug Price Control Order with less number of drugs under price control according to changed criteria laid down in the policy.
Sources said the since the court did not even heed to the government’s plea for early hearing of the case, the government could now seek the Supreme Court’s intervention to remove the hurdle on policy enforcement put by the HC verdict.
In its reply affidavit, the government had drawn the court’s attention to Supreme Court orders that discourage the judiciary’s intervention in the formulation of the government policies.
The government has also said that since none of the available data sources are exhaustive or tailor-made to suit the policy needs, ORG-Marg retail store audit report was the best available.
In a PIL, the petitioners had argued that the government was forsaking the constitutional requirement to take care of public health, by removing price control on many essential drugs.
The PIL had also disputed the soundness of the government’s criteria for price control, besides questioning the accuracy of ORG-marg database which the government uses.