Government to announce pharma code soon to curb unethical practices
The government will soon be announcing a marketing code for
pharmaceutical companies to curb unethical practices, which will
benefit the industry, a senior ministry official said.
"The
code will be mandatory, and will be for the growth and development of industry",
Sudhansh Pant joint secretary department of pharmaceuticals said at the annual
general meeting of Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI)
on Friday.
Concerned with unethical marketing practices
and illegal promotions, the government had last year announced its intentions
to announce a code which will be mandatory on the industry. At present, the
code is voluntary, with certain companies having indulged in unethical
practices like offering freebies, gifts, and exotic trips to doctors and
healthcare professionals.
Pant also said that a dedicated venture
capital fund with a corpus of Rs 500 crore will be floated to encourage
innovation in the industry.
Speaking at the AGM later, Meenakshi Lekhi MP
and Supreme Court lawyer, welcomed the industry's initiative in setting up 50
healthcare centres across the country. She urged the industry to work in the
area of organ donation, adding "harvesting
organs is a fine cause".
Several initiatives have just remained on
paper and are not implemented, Lekhi added, leading to the sad state of
healthcare in the country.
Earlier Shailesh Ayyangar President OPPI and
MD India and VP South Asia, Sanofi said, "We have yet to fix healthcare financing issues, so that the disease
burden doesn't impoverish our nation. More than ever, the need of the hour is
for all stakeholders to come together to find innovative solutions, and keep
our nation healthy".
Later a study 'Development of Health Index of
Indian states' by Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad was also released
at the event. The study shows Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu amongst the best
performers while Assam, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh were lowest performers.
States like Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and J&K performed well.
The states were then divided into three
categories of high performers, middling performers and laggards for the purpose
of policy directions.
"This
report is a first step. With the existing data, we are able to make limited
comments on the drivers of changes - which can provide preliminary pointers on
where action is required. At this stage, we are able to look at the changes in
the underlying variables that may have caused the movement. Moving forward we
will be able to provide more granular recommendations", said Prof
Arvind Sahay, IIM (A).
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