PHA-Exch> More news on Delhi Meeting: Doctor MPs support drug price control in India

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: gopakumar gopa.kumar at centad.org

          The NGOs' demand for price control on all medicines is finding
more support from within Parliament. For instance, The Indian Medical
Parliamentarians' Forum (IMPF), a recently-formed group of parliamentarians
who are medical graduates, came out with a policy note suggesting the need
to make medicines more accessible and affordable.       The note, circulated
among MPs, dwells on a number of issues, including pricing.
 Meanwhile,
a national convention of 'pharmaceutical policy and people', organised
yesterday by four civil society groups — Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, the
Federation of Medical Representatives Associations of India, All India Drug
Action Network and National Campaign Committee on Drug Policy —turned
significant due to the presence of parliamentarians, especially from the
Left.       The convention called for a national pharmaceutical policy that
addresses the critical issue of universal access to essential medicines and
national self-reliance in drug manufacturing.     draft policy also talks
about expanding the scope of price control on medicines by capping the
prices of all essential medicines.    The GoM on pharma policy, constituted
eight months ago, has met twice and heard the industry and the government
views.    The third hearing, the date for which is yet to be announced, is
expected to take a final view.
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=10&autono=306771
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20071207/71796ff2/attachment-0001.html>