NEW DELHI: In what is being seen as an attempt to delay launch of low priced generic medicines, multinational drug makers have asked the government to create a registry providing information about all drug applications pending manufacturing and marketing approval.
The proposal, if accepted by the government, will help ‘big pharma’ pre-emptively challenge generic drug makers in court for allegedly infringing upon their patents and in turn blocking or delaying the entry of the low cost version of the drug in the market. The health ministry has vehemently opposed the proposal on grounds that it will not only be “unfair to local drug manufacturers to disclose their product strategy” but also has “the potential to substantially increase healthcare costs for the public” as launch of generic products will get delayed through litigation, a senior official said. He added, such information about product applications filed for approval are not disclosed anywhere in the world.
However, the proposal is still pending with the department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) — another wing of the government that looks into pharmaceutical industry under the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers.
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