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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | If Modi Really Wants Affordable Medicines, Why is His Niti Aayog Pushing in the Opposite Direction? -Anoo Bhuyan

If Modi Really Wants Affordable Medicines, Why is His Niti Aayog Pushing in the Opposite Direction? -Anoo Bhuyan

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published Published on May 5, 2017   modified Modified on May 5, 2017
-TheWire.in

The government’s premier policy-formulating agency recently recommended measures to deregulate the pharmaceutical sector and make essential medicines more expensive.

New Delhi:
Even as the prime minister repeatedly expresses his commitment to providing affordable medicines in the country, it appears that the NITI Aayog and the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) may be working in an opposing direction. Documents between October 2016 and April 2017 show the intention of various government arms to push for drug pricing to be deregulated in line with the demands of the pharmaceutical industry, making the prime minister’s recent statements seem like an aberration.

On May 1, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch – a ‘nationalist’ lobbying group backed by the Rashtriya Swayasevak Sangh – wrote a strongly-worded letter to the prime minister and called out various sections of the government for just this. The organisation named the NITI Aayog, which is the government’s premier policy-formulating institution, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the DoP in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers and the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and said that these bodies were working to prevent medicines from being more affordable in the country.

“So powerful has the hold of the pharmaceutical companies been that the secretaries and joint secretaries of [these] three ministries … are now holding meetings along with the NITI Aayog to completely dismantle the system of price control. Of course, some kind of pretence, under the guise of pro-poor policies, will be made that they are going to introduce a better system,” their letter said.

The letter made the allegations without offering proof for them, but what the SJM is pointing too is a certain mood that has been observed by close watchers of the pharmaceutical sector as evidenced by communications within and between these government bodies over the past few months. The Wire reached out to three relevant officials at the NITI Ayog but they did not reply to calls, SMSs or emails. The relevant bureaucrat at the DoP said he is “not competent” to speak on the matter, although his office has been coordinating meetings on drug pricing recently.

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TheWire.in, 3 May, 2017, https://thewire.in/131449/niti-aayog-modi-affordable-medicines/


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