The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) is an institution, specifically a department under the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, established to provide focused attention to India's pharmaceutical sector. It was created on July 1, 2008, with the objective of regulating complex issues like drug pricing, ensuring the availability of affordable medicines, and promoting research and development (R&D) in the sector. The DoP’s core mechanism involves policy formulation and implementation, particularly to ensure the availability of drugs at reasonable prices as mandated by the Drug Prices Control Order 2013 (DPCO 2013).
The DoP connects to several key institutions and concepts, most notably the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), which is an attached office responsible for fixing and revising the prices of scheduled drugs. It also oversees the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs), which focus on human resource development and research in pharmaceutical sciences.
A major scheme under the DoP is the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP), which aims to provide quality generic medicines at affordable prices. The PMBJP has a history of renaming: it was initially launched in 2008 as the Jan Aushadhi Scheme, revamped in September 2015 and renamed Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana (PMJAY), and then renamed again in November 2016 to its current name, PMBJP.
In recent years, the DoP has focused on boosting domestic manufacturing through schemes like the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Pharmaceuticals, approved on February 24, 2021, and the Scheme for Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma MedTech (PRIP). While there was a recommendation in April 2015 to rename the department to the 'Department of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices,' its official name remains the Department of Pharmaceuticals.