The committees, which were to submit their reports this month, have now got time till September to complete their work.

Though the committees already include representatives from the industry, efforts are on to enable a wider participation from pharmaceutical units. While the pharmaceutical research and development committee has planned a meeting with associations, the drug price control review committee has circulated detailed questionnaires to associations and units to find out their views on the pricing issue.

The questionnaire has a set of 19 questions where pharmaceutical manufacturers have been asked their opinion on issues like the working of the drugs price control mechanism in the country and how it has proved to be counterproductive.

The respondentshave been asked to name the bulk drugs where production has been reduced considerably or discontinued due to price control. They have also been asked to suggest a mechanism to continue production of mass consumption drugs.

Questions on whether therapeutic category as against turnover criteria should be used for price control, what kind of market situation should be considered as monopoly/oligopoly in pharma products, what changes should be brought about in the present drug control mechanism and what measures should be taken to improve the quality of drugs form an important part of the questionnaire.

The drug price control review committee is a 11-member committee headed by chemicals and petrochemicals secretary Deepak Chatterjee. Industry representatives include DB Gupta, H Khorakiwala and Amit Mitra from Ficci. Rakesh Mohan, economist at the National Council for Applied Economic Research is also a member. Other members from the government include the additional secretary of ministry of health and familywelfare, OSD, department of chemicals and petrochemicals, chairman of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority and drug controller general of India.

The terms of reference of the committee is to review the current Drug Price Control Mechanism and suggest alternative models. Criteria of market competition and monopoly and turnover for inclusion of drugs under price control will also be suggested.

Measures for improving quality of products within the drug price control mechanism and pricing policies for newer generation of drugs, new drug delivery systems and non-prescription drugs have to be suggested by the committee.

The second committee on pharmaceutical research and development has 14 members headed by AR Mashelkar, director general of CSIR. Industry representatives include Anji Reddy, Parvinder Singh and Swati Piramal. Interestingly, six members of the first committee are also the members of the second committee.

The terms of reference of the R&D committee are to appraise the current status ofresearch and development in the Indian pharmaceutical sector and to suggest measures to boost it in the context of drug price control regime and changes in laws of Intellectual Property Rights.

The committee has to suggest new and innovative fiscal and non-fiscal measures for boosting R&D in pharmaceuticals and has to devise mechanisms for establishing organic linkages between private sector and government organisations/laboratories/universities in order to synchronise efforts.