Stakeholder Consultation

Stakeholder Consultation

Business Responsibility Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Sector in India Friday

Bangalore, December 12, 2014

CUTS Centre for Competition, Investment & Economic Regulation (CUTS CCIER) with support from the Indian Institute for Corporate Affairs (IICA) and Deutsche GesellschaftfürInternationaleZusammenarbeit(GIZ) Business Responsibility Initiative is developing sector specific guidelines based on the National Voluntary Guidelines (NVGs) on Social, Environmental & Economic Responsibilities of Business for the pharmaceutical sector.

The NVGs was released by Ministry of Corporate Affairs, GoI in 2011 which lays down the basic requirements for businesses to function responsibly, thereby ensuring a wholesome and inclusive process of economic growth. Though, the NVGs are designed for use by all businesses and sectors and therefore touch on the fundamental aspects – the ‘spirit’– of an enterprise, the issues vary from sector to sector and thus, the application of NVG would also be different. The pharmaceutical sector is of significant importance, especially since the public interest element associated with various aspects of the business conduct is very high and has direct impact on consumer well-being.

The overarching objective of drafting the pharma sector guidelines is to mainstream the NVGs into the pharma sector in order to help businesses understand, adopt and implement them so as to enable the pharma industry to grow more competent and resilient by maximising benefits, and minimizing risks, and contributing to the national development goals. The process will be stakeholder led and the guidelines would be developed with guidance of pharmaceutical business associations, government bodies and expert advisors.

On the basis of the deliberations with the Advisory Group and finalisation of the key areas, the research team has developed the zero draft of the guidelines focussed on critical areas in the pharmaceutical sector. A Stakeholder Consultation is scheduled to be held on Friday, 12th December, 2014 in Bangalore. The objective of the meeting will be to take inputs of the state-level actors on the draft guidelines. Their active participation in the preparation of the voluntary guidelines is essential in order for those guidelines to be capable of being implemented and widely supported. On the basis of the deliberations and feedback from the stakeholders and Advisory Group, the research team will refine and finalise the zero draft of the guidelines for the pharmaceutical sector.