September 28, 2002	Saturday	Rajab 20, 1423

ISLAMABAD, Sept 27: President General Pervez Musharraf has overruled objections of the health ministry over industrial policy for pharmaceutical sector and has directed its immediate implementation.

Authentic evidence available with Dawn suggests that the President has issued directives under rule 16(2) of the Rules of Business, 1973 for immediate implementation of the industrial policy for pharmaceutical sector approved by the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet early this week.

The ECC decision said that all drugs, which have to be registered for the first time, will be registered and their price fixed by the ministry of health.

Appeals against the decisions of ministry of health regarding fixation of prices of drugs for the first time will be made to a board located in the ministry of industries and production. The board will be chaired by the secretary, industries with representatives from ministry of finance and health.

Prices of already registered drugs will be regulated by the ministry of industries and production, the ECC decision said.

Official sources, however, confirmed that health ministry still had objections over the policy approved by the President. A joint press conference arranged by minister for Industries and Commerce Abdul Razak along with Health Minister Dr. Abdul Malik Kasi for Friday was cancelled.

These sources said that secretary health, Ejaz Rahim had raised objections over the minutes of the ECC recorded by secretary industries Dr. Akram Sheikh and advised health minister to avoid the press conference.

The health minister refused to speak at the scheduled press conference despite repeated requests from the commerce ministry and left for Nowshera early in the Friday morning, the commerce ministry sources said.

These sources said that the Health Ministry wanted to delay the implementation of the policy till such time the new government comes in. The commerce minister has now scheduled at least three separate meetings next week with the representatives of pharmaceutical industry to take them into confidence over the ECC decisions.

The commerce minister in a summary to the chief executive had said that in the past prices of drugs were being controlled by the ministry of health under the Drug Act 1976 while the Price Control Act 1977 also empowered the ministry of industries to regulate the prices of drugs as drugs and medicines are specifically covered under schedule of the said Act.

Earlier, the health ministry had accused the Industries Ministry of fudging the documents by wrongly recording in the minutes that matters relating to pricing of medicines will be taken over by the latter.

The Health Ministry had stated that the draft policy on pharmaceutical in which it was being propagated that the prices of the already registered drugs will be regulated by the ministry of industries was unprecedented and would definitely create confusion.

The Health Ministry said that it was proposed in the pre-ECC meeting that in future a summary for annual price increase would be initiated by the Ministry of Industries that would be presented before the ECC and then to the cabinet for final approval. It was never decided during the pre-ECC meeting that the prices of the registered medicines would be dealt with the industries for their price increase.

The health secretary had said that the ECC decisions recorded by the industries ministry would definitely raise the prices of the medicines to manifold and would prove to be an anti-consumer measure.

The Health Ministry believes that it was an accepted conclusion that nowhere in the world drug prices were assigned to the ministry of industries.

The Health Ministry alleged that instead of allowing time for these consultations, the matter was brought to ECC without circulating a working paper or summary. This was done even before the minutes of pre-ECC meeting were sent to the ministry of health.