‘It would be too early to call this policy a boon or bane’

The NELM policy is adopted to strike a balance between the growing pharma industry of the nation and offer accessibility and availability of reasonably priced medicines to the consumers, particularly the poorer masses. The regulation of medicines’ prices is based on the prices of the formulations only. This ensures specific pricing control of the required medicines which are prescribed by doctors, and is in the interest of the consumers. Research products (patented) are kept outside this scheme; therefore there would not be much impact on Venus and other pharma companies, which are driven by research products. Besides this, as the policy is applicable only to the domestic sales, export driven pharma companies also fall out of this scheme, thereby keeping the impact on margins to almost negligible.

Certain products of Venus Remedies fall under the NLEM 2011. However, pricing of these products are already low as compared to the market leaders, therefore the impact of the policy on the company would be minimum. We are sure that a part of the impact, if any, can be passed on to the API suppliers.

Moreover, as the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India has not fixed and announced the ceiling price for the NLEM 2011, it would be too early to call this policy a boon or bane for the Indian pharma industry and its players.

– Dheeraj Aggarwal, CFO, Venus Remedies