Health

KEY POINTS

·         The growth of Private drug industry has led to the decline and near disappearance of public sector capacity for manufacture of drugs and vaccines. 

Significance of public sector

·         The existence of PSUs in drug manufacturing sectors would provide an opportunity to utilise the provision of Compulsory Licensing under TRIPS.

·         Compulsory licences need to be issued by the government for patent protected drugs or even off-patent drugs which are commercially unattractive to private manufacturers.

·         If the domestic private sector drug manufacturers are not ready to apply for CL, public sector capacity to seek and utilise such licences becomes indispensable.

·         The role of PSUs will offer an opportunity to produce drug volumes for use in primary and secondary care facilities as well as help in ‘benchmarking’ drug costs.

·         Effective implementation of the Ayushman Bharat initiative calls for investment in expanding public sector capacity for producing essential drugs.

·         Drugs for neglected tropical diseases are of little interest to the commercially driven private drug industry.

·         Enhancing public sector capacity is also essential in such scenario.

·         Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), which are needed for drug manufacture (formulation), are now mostly imported from China.

·         This makes India highly vulnerable to disruptions in supply and cost escalations in import.

·         National security demands the development of both public and private sector capacity within the country, with suitable government support and incentives, to ensure uninterrupted and inexpensive availability of APIs.

·         Thus, active public sector capacity is needed to ensure that Indians are not denied access to essential drugs.