634 drugs on NPPA's price ceiling non-compliant list

New Delhi: As many as 634 drugs of various strengths produced by firms, including Cipla, Abbott, Astrazeneca and Dr Reddy's, are "suspected" to be non-compliant with ceiling prices as notified by NPPA.

In its latest notification, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) said it issued the list after analysing the market data of various medicines in December last year.

The "list of cases of suspected non-compliance of notified ceiling prices" issued by NPPA included medicines manufactured by leading pharmaceutical firms in India.

Cipla, Abbott India, Ajanta Pharma, Alkem Labs, Astrazeneca, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Cadila are some of the firms mentioned in the list.

Some of the medicines which feature in the list of suspected non-compliance of ceiling prices issued by NPPA included Abbott's Thyrocab, Alembic's Althrocin and Cipla's Novamox -- an anti-bacterial medicine.

As of date, NPPA has notified the ceiling prices of 662 medicines listed under revised Schedule-I of DPCO 2013 (National List of Essential Medicines NLEM -15).

The government fixes the prices of essential drugs based on the simple average of all medicines in a particular therapeutic segment, having sales of more than 1 per cent.

Companies are allowed to hike prices of such drugs by up to 10 per cent in a year.

The government had notified DPCO (Drug Price Control Order), 2013, with effect from May 15, 2014, replacing the 1995 one that regulated prices of only 74 bulk drugs.

Set up in 1997, NPPA has been entrusted with the task of fixation and revision of prices of pharma products, enforcement of provisions of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order and monitoring of prices of controlled and decontrolled drugs.