Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Jun 11, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Jun 11, 2002 |
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Industry & Economy
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Pharmaceuticals Drug makers, trade to sort out matters Aparna Krishnan
MUMBAI, June 10 DRUG-MAKERS and chemists have come together to sort out the long-standing disputes over price and trade margins. The three main industry organisations, Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association (IDMA), the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) and the All-India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) have come together to form a task force to tackle the various complaints on retail trade. According to IDMA's newsletter, IDMA bulletin, the industry bodies had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on industry-trade matters in August 30, 2001 but was put `in abeyance' pending further discussions by AIOCD. The trade body has since given its confirmation to the MoU and is expected to be fully implemented by all sides. The coming to force of the MoU assumes significance due to a series of clashes in the past eight months, between the retail chemists and the pharmaceutical companies over the price issue. Recently, the AIOCD had threatened to boycott some products of Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd over discrepancy in trade margins. The MoU is expected to tackle sensitive trade matters such as declaration of maximum retail price (MRP) on drug packages, product information service, invoicing information, arbitrary actions and date-expired stocks and imported drugs. The task force on the issue of declaration of MRP on drug packages has members from all the three associations and will pursue the matter jointly with the Government. "It was clearly agreed that trade will not demand any margin on excise duty or local taxes if all-inclusive MRP system was put into effect and that the existing system of calculating trade margins on net price excluding excise duty and local taxes shall continue," the MoU states. A significant breakthrough is the confirmation of AIOCD that there will be no further agitation or direct action with regard to all product information services (PIS) for new products, which would be cleared immediately.
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