The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Union government to form an expert committee to consider a statutory mechanism to curb unethical pharmaceutical marketing and return with concrete recommendations, ensuring that the regulatory review does not remain an open-ended exercise.
The matter will be placed before the court on January 29, 2027 to show compliance with the orders of the court,” justice Mehta said, reading out the operative part for the bench. The government has previously explored giving legal backing to the pharma marketing code under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 and later, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. These recommendations led to the UCPMP, 2024, which introduced an Ethics Committee for Pharma Marketing Practice, CEO self-declarations and expenditure disclosures, besides tighter provisions governing gifts, brand reminders, physician samples and continuing medical education.
“We have directed the Union of India to constitute the committee and give its recommendations in terms of our previous directives and observations. Both routes, however, raised questions over jurisdiction, implementation and legal tenability. quality, and sale of medicines, the Essential Commodities Act addresses their supply, distribution, and prices, leaving a regulatory gap in how pharmaceutical companies interact with medical practitioners While the Drugs and Cosmetics Act principally deals with the manufacture. It also provided for complaint timelines, audit and referral mechanisms and an Apex Committee for Pharma Marketing Practice (ACPMP). But the government also acknowledged that the existing framework primarily addressed the conduct of medical practitioners through statutory and professional regulations governing doctors, while regulating pharmaceutical companies required separate consideration.
A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta directed the Centre to constitute the committee in line with the court’s earlier directions and observations.
