Dollar dream

New Delhi, July 5: The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) today cleared seven foreign direct investment proposals in Indian pharmaceutical companies, while deferring three cases on concerns over ownership control.

“The FIPB has considered all the applications, and taken decisions on merit. We have cleared seven proposal and deferred three,” a finance ministry official said after a meeting of the board.

The FIPB, headed by the department of economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram, discussed 30 proposals, including 10 from the pharma sector.

“In cases where there were issues related to control, the decision have been kept in suspension till the review process is completed by the DIPP. We will wait for the final policy decision,” the official said without disclosing the proposals that were cleared by the board.

The proposals, which were discussed in the meeting, included that of Singapore’s GlaxoSmithKline Pte, USA’s Mylan Inc, Mauritius-based Castleton Investment Ltd, Mumbai-based Ferring Therapeutics and Hyderabad-based Verdant Life Sciences.

At present, India permits 100 per cent FDI in the pharma sector through the automatic route in new projects.

Foreign investments in existing pharma companies are allowed only after the FIPB’s approval.

The government is likely to soon finalise the foreign direct investment policy for existing drug companies.

The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) had raised concerns over a spate of acquisitions of domestic pharma firms by multinationals.

The FDI policy for this sector has already been discussed at the Prime Minister’s level in December.

Accordingly, all foreign investments in existing domestic pharma firms were allowed only after the FIPB’s clearance.