Last Updated on January 4, 2024 by The Health Master
Reporting overcharging cases
The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has requested pharmaceutical companies to investigate instances of overcharging and report them to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).
The move is aimed at enabling policy interventions for prospective batch pricing.
Pharma Industry’s Request for Prospective Batch Pricing
The pharma industry has been calling for prospective batch pricing because when the prices of scheduled drugs are revised downwards, the revised price is immediately enforced.
However, the pharma companies have no control over the 8 lakh chemists in the country.
This leads to litigations even if one strip is found with the old rate with the chemist after 3 to 4 months.
It takes at least 15 days to one month to implement new price stickering on the new batch of medicines.
NPPA’s Apprehensions
According to Dr N Yuvaraj, joint secretary, DoP, “NPPA has some apprehensions due to wrong practices by some manufacturers in the past.”
“It has been recommended not to enter data immediately in Form III in the next quarter.”
“DoP will discuss with the NPPA whether manufacturers can disclose the stocks in hand with batch numbers to the NPPA on the Integrated Pharmaceutical Database Management System (IPDMS 2.0) website on the day the ceiling price is announced so that the complications are reduced.”
Price Control of Scheduled Formulations
NPPA is all set to bring other scheduled formulations under price control following the price control of 400 scheduled drugs based on a market-based formula, according to an official associated with the development.
Pharma Industry’s Request for Policy Interventions
The pharma industry has been urging policy interventions to incentivize the MSMEs as the costs of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), excipients, packing material, and transportation costs have increased.
These factors have been putting severe pressure on the operating margins of pharmaceutical companies.
Price Hike of Key API
The price of a key API like paracetamol, which is a price-controlled formulation, rose by 143% last year, whereas the ceiling price was revised by only 0.54% as per the WPI in April 2021.
In the last 9 years since Paracetamol has been under price control, the API price has increased by more than 200% to 300%, but the corresponding ceiling price has been revised by only 3%.
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