New Delhi: India’s drug price monitoring and enforcing authority, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), has almost 85 per cent of the amount it demanded from the pharma industry on alleged overcharging of drug prices remaining pending for recovery till September 30, 2025, owing to various reasons including companies challenging the claim in the Court of Law.
The total overcharged amount demanded by the NPPA, including interest, under the Drug Prices Control Orders (DPCO) 1979, 1987, 1995 and 2013 till September 30, 2025 is Rs. 10,013.3 crore, of which an amount of Rs. 8,526.1 crore is outstanding. The amount still under litigation including cases referred to the collector and contested by the companies in the Court, is around Rs. 5,938.7 crore, while Rs 1,487.1 crore out of the total overcharged amount demanded has been realised till the end of September.
Interestingly, the outstanding amount has come down from the Rs. 8,579.1 crore reported in September, 2024, and the amount under litigation has witnessed a marginal decline from Rs. 6,076.4 crore in September, 2024 to Rs. 5,938.7 crore at the end of September, 2025.
Out of the total outstanding at the end of September, this year, demand of around Rs. 223.8 crore belongs to cases referred to collectors and the amount still to be recovered. Another Rs. 5.5 crore demand is pending with the BIFR or official liquidator.
Without considering the amount under litigation, cases referred to the collector and pending before the official liquidator, the amount pending related to the overcharging cases under process is around Rs. 2,358.2 crore, it added.
Meanwhile, NPPA has seen a significant increase in demands raised during the first six months of 2025-26, as compared to the same period of previous fiscal year.
In the first six months of the current fiscal year, the NPPA has booked 85 cases raising demand to the tune of Rs. 61.51 crore, of which around Rs. 12.08 crore has been realised. This is compared to 47 cases with demands raised to the tune of Rs. 2.77 crore and realisation of Rs. 3.31 crore during the first six months of 2024-25.
The Authority has realised a total of Rs. 68.33 crore during the first six months of 2025-26. The rest of Rs. 49.43 crore raised during the six months is yet to be realised, adding to the cumulative outstanding of Rs. 8,526.1 crore at the end of September, 2025.
During the year 2024-25, the NPPA has charged a total of 107 cases, with a total demand for Rs. 13.96 crore. It has, however, realised Rs. 20.54 crore during the fiscal year, including a Rs. 3.46 crore from the demands raised during the year, while the rest is from the pending demands raised in the previous years.
Some of the major demands raised, along with interest, by the Authority during the fiscal 2025-26 include Rs. 12.81 crore from Swiss Garnier Genexiaa Sciences Pvt Ltd related to pricing of Nifutin 100 mg tablets 10’s, Rs. 6.58 crore from Torrent Pharmaceuticals related to pricing of Regestrone CR 10 tablet, Rs. 4.54 crore from USV Ltd for pricing of Clopidogrel 75 mg tablet 10’s, Rs. 3.32 crore from Unichem Laboratories Ltd for Trilostar 6.25 tablet 10’s, and Rs. 2.37 crore from Lupin Ltd related to pricing of Telista 20 tablets, among others.
Out of this, Rs. 3.03 crore has been recovered from Torrent Pharma, Rs. 1.86 crore from USV Ltd, Rs. 1.35 crore from Unichem Ltd, and Rs. 87.86 lakh from Lupin Ltd till September, 2025, and the matter is under process, states the drug pricing authority. Most of the demands raised during 2025-26 are under process, according to the data.
