Draft Pharmaceutical Policy, 2017
After years of constant denial, it appears that in the draft policy, the government is finally ready to accept that there is a problem with the drugs that are manufactured and sold in India. The Draft Pharmaceutical Policy 2017, prepared by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, has an entire paragraph dedicated to the quality concerns that affect the domestic market. A common feature in the Government of India’s (GoI’s) response to any allegation of sub-standard medicines supplied by the Indian industry is to deflect attention by insinuating a “foreign-hand”, that foreign governments and their industry conspire to defame the Indian industry because they cannot compete with the Indian pharmaceutical industry.