[e-drug] The unlamented death of 'life saving drugs' - India

["Anonymous" <E-drug@healthnet.org>]

E-DRUG: The unlamented death of 'life saving drugs' - India

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The unlamented death of 'life saving drugs' - India

There are two Ministries involved in pharmaceuticals in India. First is of
course the Ministry of Health involved in quality through the Drug
Controller General of India. The DCGI also prepares the National Essential
Medicines List for India. The other is the Ministry of Chemicals and
Fertilizers which has the remit on prices (and therefore Access and
Affordability) through the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).
The prices of the medicines that NPPA regulates are obviously important in
access; about 34 medicines are price controlled and the NPPA monitors the
price of other medicines and imposes corrective measures if there are large
increases.

There have been repeated requests for the NPPA to monitor and regulate
Essential Medicines in India. In reply the NPPA has said that they are
interested in monitoring and regulating "Life Saving Drugs" and that they
would focus on this group. However, there has been no concept, definition
or a list of life saving drugs forthcoming. No such concept of life saving
drugs also exists in any other countries. 

While these semantics and disputes on the names of the list of drugs may
seem trivial, it has important policy implications. While the Ministry of
Health focussed on Essential Medicines, the NPPA focussed on life saving
drugs, medicine prices with a focus on health, access and affordability did
not move forward. 

At the round table discussion held the day before the 10th anniversary
meeting of the NPPA on 11th April in Hotel Ashok, New Delhi, there was a
question (again) from a drug regulator as to the definition of "Life Saving
Drugs". The Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers
then clearly stated that there is no concept, definition or list of life
saving drugs (although it is easily understandable by the general public),
but Essential Medicines. Of course the concept and definition have been
known for the past 30 years. In reply to a question, the Ministry said that
they would not be using the phrase "life saving drugs" ever again in the
documents of the NPPA and promised to eradicate and eliminate it. Thus,
verbal cleansing of the phrase "life saving drugs" from the vocabulary of
the NPPA may have been achieved at this meeting. 

We can now look forward to the two key Ministries involved in medicines in
India speaking with the same phrase "Essential Medicines" and therefore,
coordination by the two Ministries in medicines, which will ultimately
benefit a large proportion of the population in that country that does not
have sustained access to Essential Medicines.