Draft pharma policy fails to impress PMO, may take time to see light of day

Paper was presented before PM Modi in a meeting attended by officials from NITI Aayog and pharma pricing authority

The Central government is planning to make major changes in the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013 and come out with a new policy soon. However, the draft that was presented before the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has been sent back for reworking, sources said. 

It is learnt that in a meeting at the PMO sometime back, the draft was presented before the Prime Minister himself. The meeting was attended by officials from the NITI Aayog, Department of Pharmaceuticals, and National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). Some of the proposals (for example trade margin calculation for imported medical devices) were not