Committee to regulate drug overpricing

Currently, around 74 scheduled drugs are under price control. Their prices are controlled directly by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority NPPA. The rest fall under the category of 8216;non-scheduled drugs8217; and their prices are merely monitored by NPPA. In case any sharp rise in price comes to the regulator8217;s notice, it questions the company.

The pharma industry has been hoping for relief from rigours of price control. The increase in number of drugs under price control will come as a shock.

The number of drugs to be under price control was to be brought down to around 30 through a new Drug Price Control order DPCO under 8216;Pharma Policy 20028217;. This was stalled following a public interest litigation filed in the Karnataka High Court. The ministry of chemicals had later moved the Supreme Court to remove the stay on implementation of the policy.

The proposal to put the essential drugs under price control came after a NPPA study brought to light the fact that consumers were paying six to 32 times more than the price at which the drugs were procured by retailers.