India's Ministry of Health calls meeting with pharma industry as ever more domestic drugmakers sell out to MNCs

Amid concerns about its domestic pharmaceutical companies selling out to foreign groups - the latest being Piramal to USA health care giant Abbott Laboratories (The Pharma Letter May 21) - India's Ministry of Health is planning to call a meeting of drug industry executives on the matter, reports PharmaBiz.

Given the interest in pharmaceutical sector of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries, and the recent trend of Indian drug firms falling into the hands of the multinational corporations (MNCs) getting stronger, the Health Ministry is apprehensive that even the branded generic medicines may become more expensive for the patients in the country which depended largely on the generic supply. On the other hand, the government has been taking several measures to encourage generics, especially the unbranded generics, to make them affordable for the larger section of the people.

The meeting is an attempt by the ministry to find out the reasons behind the trend and to initiate steps, if needed, to overcome the impact of such take-overs, sources told PharmaBiz.