Last Updated on June 5, 2020 by The Health Master
Having registered the society for setting up the much awaited Price Monitoring and Resource Unit (PMRU) in the state to track drug ceiling price violation, the Rajasthan drug control department has formed a staff selection committee to recruit eight professionals for the same.
These eight professionals will include 3 information technology professionals and 5 scientific officers having minimum qualification of M Pharm.
“Since Rajasthan is a big state having 33 districts, we will depute these officers in a zone-wise manner so that the actual purpose of PMRU is achieved as per the mandate of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA),” according to an official associated with the development.
Through the PMRU, NPPA will closely work with the state drug regulator to detect overpricing of medicines. The officials leading the PMRU will report their findings to the NPPA directly in case they find any pharmaceutical company selling the drugs above the ceiling price fixed by the NPPA. Training has also been given to the Rajasthan drug inspectors on how to conduct sample survey in the market of the respective drugs covered under and outside the Drug Prices Control Order- 2013 (DPCO- 2013).
Also read: Pharma industry requests time-bound amendments in DPCO 2013
The Rajasthan drug control department had registered the PMRU recently with approval from state medical education and drug department (MED). PMRU is aimed at keeping a tab on drug price ceiling violation and to ensure that the purpose of the DPCO-2013 is achieved effectively and in a proper manner. As of today, PMRUs have already been established in 12 states including Gujarat like Kerala, Odisha, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Nagaland and Tripura with the latest entrant being Uttar Pradesh (UP). NPPA has recently set up PMRU in Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory (UT).
NPPA had in 2016 proposed a plan to set up a ceiling price violation cell in each state to take action for any contravention to the provisions of DPCO-2013. As per a notification, NPPA had proposed to set up PMRUs in states and UTs to support state drug controllers (SDCs) and itself through initiating a Central scheme of assistance at state level and UTs. “Each unit will function under the direct supervision of the SDC. PMRUs will be the key collaborating partners of NPPA, with information-gathering mechanism at the grassroots level. PMRUs will also ensure that the benefits of DPCO percolate down to the grassroots level. The central funding will be for an initial period of five years subject to a mid-term review,” the notification stated.
NPPA has categorised states based on three categories, i.e. based on maximum, minimum and least number of pharma companies for rationalising division of work. Government has earmarked an amount of Rs. 67 lakh for all category A states in the country of which Rs. 7 lakh has been earmarked for infrastructure and equipment, Rs. 19 lakh for manpower, Rs. 24 lakh for training, Rs. 12 lakh for data collection and sampling and Rs. 5 lakh as contingency fund.
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