Industry leaders to meet Health Minister on irrational combination issue soon
Ramesh Shankar, Mumbai

As all their efforts to convince DCGI Dr M Venkateshwarlu to evolve a mechanism to weed out irrational combination drugs from the market did not bear fruits, the pharmaceutical industry leaders have decided to meet Union Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss to apprise him of the industry's concerns on the issue.

According to sources, the captains of the industry will soon meet the Minister to give him the industry side of the story. "So far, the Minister only knows the story given to him by the DCGI. He does not know the concerns of the industry. So, we have decided to meet the Minister soon. However, no date has been fixed," a senior industry leader said.

Another senior industry leader said that the industry is worried over the decision of the DCGI to withdraw such a large number of combination drugs from the market without any mechanism. The industry is not against weeding out irrational combination drugs from the market, but the industry should be given sufficient time to do it as thousands of crore of rupees are at stake, he said.

However, without mincing words, he admitted that there are several irrational combination drugs in the market and the industry is not against removing them from the market. "In fact, some companies have started acting on it by withdrawing their products which are considered irrational", he said.

Though the major industry associations like IPA and IDMA, representing most of the large and medium Indian pharma companies, had tried their level best to persuade the DCGI to see reason by evolving a proper mechanism to weed out irrational combination drugs from the market, the DCGI cold shouldered the pleas of the industry associations.

In fact, after getting the letters from the industry associations the DCGI further tightened his stand on the issue. As the state drug controllers, who have been asked to act fast, have been found lethargic in taking quick actions, the DCGI has convened a series of meetings of state drug controllers to convince them about the need to weed out irrational combination drugs. The DCGI has already completed the meetings of drug controllers of south, west and north regions. Sources said the DCGI has made an emotional plea to the state drug authorities on the need to weed out the irrational drugs which pose a danger to the public health.

Source: www.pharmabiz.com
8th October 2007

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