In an effort to make medicines affordable to the poor population, the Government is planning to control prices of expensive patented drugs. Speaking to reporters in Mumbai on Friday, Dilsher Singh Kalha, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, said the Government might bring in reference pricing or the fixed-pricing system. He added that a committee has finalised a proposal in this regard and the government will soon put it out in the public domain. Currently, patented drugs are free of price controls but there are restrictions on the prices of 348 essential drugs. In order to make medicines affordable, the Centre had earlier announced that it would implement a $5.4-billion plan to provide free generic medicines to the needy.