Order on price cut of stents soon: Ananth

Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar announced on Saturday that the notification on reduced prices of stents will be issued in a few days.

He was speaking while announcing the second edition of ‘India Pharma & India Medical Device 2017’ exhibition, to be held in Bengaluru in February. 

“People were being charged high prices for all kinds of stents. Now that stents have been included in the National List of Essential Medicines as a Schedule I drug, the prices can be controlled by issuing Drug Price Control Orders,” he said.

He said the Union government was mulling over making the uniform code of pharmaceuticals marketing practices (UCPMP) mandatory. 

“The UCPMP was introduced in January 2015 as a voluntary code of conduct, but it is not being followed in letter and spirit. So we are thinking of making it compulsory,” Kumar said. India lags behind in the production of bulk drugs and medical devices, with 80% of the devices used in the country being imported, he said.

“We will set up pharma and medical device parks in Visakhapatnam and Ahmedabad. Governments of Himachal Pradesh and Telangana have also shown interest in setting up such parks,” he said. The cost of providing common infrastructure and land will be borne by the Central and state governments, bringing the cost of production down by 30%, the minister added.

 

Pharma exhibition in Bengaluru from February 11
The ‘India Pharma & India Medical Device 2017’ exhibition will be held at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre from February 11 to 13. It is being organised by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry. Kumar termed it the ‘Pharma Kumbh’ of the country. Workshops and live demonstrations will be conducted on the theme ‘Shaping the Future: Making the right choices’. For the first time, an international regulators’ meet will be part of the expo, he said.

Drug regulators from 12 countries, including USA and Japan, will participate and interact with drugs controllers in India. “They will see our facilities and environment and will be convinced about the global standards of our products. The purpose is to make it easier to get clearance and approval when drugs produced in India are exported,” Kumar said. There will be two roundtable discussions - one with representatives from the government and the other an interaction between CEOs and regulators,” he added.