NPPA to put a few more drugs under the pricing scanner

(Image for representational purposes only)

New Delhi: The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has been giving numerous pharmaceuticals a hard time by putting them under the scanner.

Recently, the NPPA was in the news after it slashed the prices of coronary stents by 85 percent.

Now, the drug pricing regulator is planning to bring a “few more” medicines under pricing control as a part of measures to provide relief to patients.

"Next Authority meeting of NPPA on March 9; Few more drugs to come under price control," NPPA said in a tweet.

The regulator has been fixing and revising the prices of drugs, and by January this year, when it had slashed the prices of 33 drugs, over 620 drugs had been placed under the price control sine April 2016.

Stepping up measures to ensure the availability of stents, the regulator is also holding a second round of meeting with stent manufacturers and importers on March 7, 2017 to review stock positions of the stents and plans for next six months.

As stipulated under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order (DPCO) 2013, NPPA fixes ceiling price of essential medicines of Schedule I.

The calculation of price for essential drugs is based on the simple average of rates of all medicines in a particular therapeutic segment with sales of more than 1 percent.

In respect of medicines not under price control, manufacturers are allowed to increase the maximum retail price by 10 per cent annually.

The government had notified the DPCO 2013, which covers 680 formulations, with effect from May 15, 2014, replacing the 1995 order that regulated prices of only 74 bulk drugs.

Set up in 1997, NPPA has been entrusted with the task of fixation/revision of prices of pharma products, enforcement of provisions of DPCO and monitoring of prices of controlled and decontrolled drugs.

(With PTI inputs)