Mazumdar-Shaw welcomed the healthcare plan but said it is not viable unless it is integrated with primary healthcare.
Commenting on the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), Biocon Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said that the scheme has not been given full thought.
"If the government wants to start from scratch and build it up ground up, it’s going to take a lot of time because I feel that it’s not been thought through fully", the Biocon chief told Mint in an interview.
The Biocon CMD said partnering with companies is a faster way of rolling out the scheme instead of the government building it from scratch.
Mazumdar-Shaw welcomed the healthcare plan but said it is not viable unless it is integrated with primary healthcare.
She said the NPPA has improved its standards of inspection but also highlighted that the drug prices regulator does not distinguish between big firms and smaller firms when it comes to fixing of prices.
On the subject of price control, the Biocon chief said she is in favour of price control. But she added that the method of setting ceiling prices is flawed.
"But how to arrive at the ceiling price is the question. The logic that they are using is flawed. They are looking at a whole bunch of prices irrespective of quality, who is making it, what is the infrastructure, investment, R&D investment—they are looking at like-for-like comparison," she said.
