A large number of pharma firms have sold majority of their shares to multinational companies which will make essential medicines

New Delhi: August 05, 2010

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health has asked the government to pay attention to the selling out of major Indian Pharma companies to multinationals, whose increasing hold over the drug market it says will make essential medicines costlier.The committee in its report presented to the Rajya Sabha noted that a large number of pharma companies have sold majority of their shares to multinational companies. "Promoters of some Indian pharma companies like Piramal Healthcare, Ranbaxy, Shantha Biotech and Dabur Pharma have already sold their controlling shares to US, Japanese and German MNCs," the report said.

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