New Delhi: Taking a strong view that even a single COVID patient from any corner of the country should not be deprived of timely medicines and medical devices for recovering from the highly contagious coronavirus disease, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers has recommended a daily review of requirements of all the states/UTs by Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) and Health Ministry in coordination with the state/UT governments.
The Committee, which is chaired by DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, has also suggested, in its report, that all medical devices critical to COVID-19 treatment like ventilators, oxygen concentrators, etc should be covered under the National List of Essential Medicines for effective price control.
The DoP may also consider the manufacturing of ventilators by Pharma PSUs to make available quality ventilators at competitive prices to hospitals, it stated in its report which was tabled in both the Houses of Parliament on Monday.
The House panel has also recommended the DoP and NPPA to frame a new price control regime specific for medicines and medical devices for COVID-19 management.
As per the report, the Panel has recommended that manufacturers of COVID medicines should be provided with all kinds of support, including logistics, regulatory facilitation by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), assistance in imports of raw materials through the Ministry of External Affairs and Indian Missions abroad, relief in taxation, etc to enable them to manufacture the required quantum of medicines.
Highlighting major constraints in ensuring availability of medicines, the Parliamentary Committee has found two major constraints -- the lag time between the manufacturing of the drug and its availability in the market and import of certain raw materials for drugs, including the finished formulations like Tocilizumab which is not manufactured in India.
The House panel has asked the government at the Centre to maintain a continuous buffer stock of COVID 19 medicines. It has also suggested adopting a transparent and fair process for the equal distribution of medicines and medical devices to meet the day-to-day requirements of each state/UT.
The Committee has also recommended continuous functioning of COVID Drugs Management Cell (CDMC) in the DoP till the pandemic is entirely over and establishment of similar CDMC at state/UT level.