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Kerala

Cooperatives can help check the prices of drugs

The government has announced that the State Cooperative Department is planning to foray into the field of pharmaceutical manufacture. Will the increased presence of the cooperative movement in such diverse fields help minimise the impact
of the current economic crisis?
Our readers respond:

Welcome move

There is every chance that if the government proposes something good for the public, it will help to overcome the present financial crisis. There are many issues involved in the pharmaceutical field. Some manufacturers, distributors and medical representatives influence doctors to prescribe certain medicines. There are many laws and regulations to control the manufacture and sale of medicines, but many of them are violated by the middlemen. If the government enables the State cooperative sector to enter this field, it will be helpful to the public and will check the drug mafia, which is functioning in the State.

S.N. Thiruvazhiode

Ernakulam

Uneconomical

The State’s move to make the cooperative department enter the field of manufacture and sell pharmaceuticals is like catching the bull by its tail. The public sector ventures in the State are not on a sound footing. Consumer-based ventures like the KSEB, KSRTC, KWA are in the red. That being the track record of the public sector, new ventures will prove uneconomical. What is needed is enforcement of the existing rules and allowing the pharmaceutical manufacturers to embark on new ventures. The State, with its monitoring and law enforcement agencies, should keep a strict control on the functioning of the units concerned.

The economic scenario is in the doldrums and new trial-and-error methods will not prove helpful. The sale of pharmaceutical products can be considered as a role for cooperatives, but manufacturing may not be helpful. The attention of the State should fall on regulating the prices of essential drugs and other products. Government agencies embarking on manufacturing medicines will be another white elephant.

O.B. Nair

Poonithura

Scope for success

The cooperative department’s diversifying into pharmaceutical manufacturing is a welcome move. As an outsider, I feel that the department is rendering yeoman service, particularly in the field of rural banking and retail credit. Following in the footsteps of the epoch-making success of Amul under the able leadership of Varghese Kurian, Milma also seems to be doing well.

Being quasi-governmental in nature, the cooperative sector commands resources and an aura of respectability and reliability about it. Such a move will prove a great relief in the field of medicine already riddled with spurious drugs and bootlegging. If handled professionally, it will be a runaway success and be of great service to the people. I wish it god-speed and success.

P.V. Divakarn

Avittathur

Coping with meltdown

A striking feature of the Kerala government has been its strong fiscal and legal support to cooperatives. The traditional distrust of cooperatives by both capitalists and Communists has not affected the Left Democratic Front or the United Democratic Front that rule the State alternately.

Now comes the government’s intention to foray into the field of pharmaceutical manufacturing. As a matter of fact, the increased presence of the cooperative movement is capable of invigorating this service sector.

Cooperatives use the principle of micro finance to capitalise their enterprise. This is vitally relevant in the current scenario of global economic slowdown, which our economy has admirably withstood. The cooperative move, which is ‘globalisation from the bottom’ may not only thwart the rigours and ill-effects of the ‘globalisation from above’ but may serve as an alternative to it. The meltdown has demonstrated that globalisation from the top is not for the worker or the consumer but for the rich and the elite.

Nevertheless, it is incumbent on the cooperative department to see that the cooperative endeavours are not afflicted by the demerits of such moves that include the emergence of pressure groups, siphoning of funds to unrelated spheres and, most importantly, corruption.

N. Sadasivan Pillai

Camp: Modinabad

Control the sector

The government’s proposal to engage the cooperate department in the pharmaceutical sector is a good one, if it maintains true allegiance to the public and to the health department. The financial crisis is not only in the State or the rest of India, but is a world phenomenon. The IMF says that the crisis is very serious and the situation will change only in 2010. In that situation, the cooperate department entering the medical field is a good step. The State should control the cooperate sector’s activities. Otherwise, it will end up as another headache for the government.

P. Sankaranarayanan

Petta

Right mindset needed

The cooperative sector in any field of activity, if properly and judiciously administered with the needed dose of prudence and circumspection, will bring only benefits to society. And the pharmaceutical sector is no exception. Therefore, the projected foray of the co-operative department, with the tried and tested ‘each for all and all for each’ aim, into the field of pharmaceutical manufacture will not hinder, but only help, the government to minimise the current economic crisis. The only desideratum is possession of the right mindset and correct attitude in the approach to and handling of the issue. I clearly see light at the end of the tunnel.

K.B. Rajagopalan

Chittoor Road

Optimistic outlook

Even now, there exists a wrong notion among a large number of people that public sector enterprises are not a success. However, the truth is otherwise. We can quote a number of large, medium and small Indian enterprises in the public sector running profitably, efficiently, highly skillfully, and in terms of productivity at high levels. There are many manufacturing units crossing the targets fixed for them in comparison with international standards. In other words, qualitatively and quantitatively and cost-wise, they are second to none.

In this context, the fact that the State cooperative department is planning to foray into the field of pharmaceutical manufacturing is to be viewed with optimism. The field of pharmaceutical manufacture is at present wholly in the hands of the private sector and no doubt, as a result of monopoly, the prices of their products are exorbitantly high, leaving the standard of their products in doubt. People, when they are in dire need of certain pharmaceutical products, cannot afford to buy them due to the high prices.

In order that much of the benefit of a pharmaceutical manufacturing unit coming under the cooperative department should go to a wider section and needy ones — because the products are expected to be available at reasonable rates — they should be encouraged.

Ambalath Aboobackar

Pavaratty

Countering trends

It is indeed a welcome step from the government. The prices of many medicines, including life-saving drugs, have shot up manifold. Countering such trends, the government intervention is a plausible solution.

Pharmaceutical companies do pricing without any social commitment or principle. This imposes a heavy burden on the ordinary people. Such practices can be curbed to a large extent by the government initiative.

Not only the cooperative segment but also the various government organs together can make a solid impact in order to ease the burden of the economic crisis.

Multinational drug companies have exclusive rights and manufacturing skills. Medicines are the outcome of decade-long research. In this backdrop, bringing out vital medicines for the poor people is certainly a challenge as well as a tough target.

Siju Vasudevan

Keezhillam

Market intervention

The cooperative department has been doing a remarkable job in containing the prices of essential commodities and the like, particularly during the festival seasons when the market prices show a tendency to skyrocket. However, the plan to enter the drug manufacture sector does not make good economic sense, given the fact that there are hardly any manufacturing enterprises making profit in the government sector, unless, of course, it is a monopoly. The very purpose of making drugs available to the common man at affordable prices could be served well if the department strengthens its Neethi medical establishments and makes sure that all the drugs are available. If procurement of essential quality medicines in bulk at low and competitive prices is a constraint due to the prevailing archaic contract rules, the government should reform them.

R.Unni Krishnan

Edapally

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