New Delhi, Nov 21: The Supreme Court today admitted an appeal filed by the Union Government challenging a Karnataka High Court order virtually staying the controversial Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) under the pharmaceutical policy 2002, but said the new regime would not be implemented till further orders. A bench comprising Chief Justice V N Khare and Justice S B Sinha, while admitting the petition, ordered that the stay on the operation of the DPCO would continue as the respondents alleged that DPCO allowed many life-saving drugs to go out of the price control regime, which would allow the firms to increase the price of the essential medicines at will. Appearing for the government, Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee said that it was a misconceived apprehension that many life-saving drugs have not been included in the national list of essential drugs and that the government retained the power to include any drug within the ambit of the list at any point of time. Appearing for K Gopinath, on whose petition the high court had asked the government to review the list of drugs designated as essential medicines and not to give effect to DPCO till then, senior advocate C Sundaram said that if the DPCO was given effect to, 325 of 359 medicines would go out of the price control regime.

Appearing for drug manufacturers, senior advocate Kapil Sibal requested the court to lift the stay on DPCO, saying it was causing great confusion in the Pharma sector as there was no policy operating. Bureau Report