National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has set fixed prices for essential life saving drugs but there is no transparency in the system to track companies are following the rules of govt or not. Recently ₹ 238.84 crore amount has been recovered from the pharmaceutical companies against non-compliance of provisions of DPCO, 2013. Pharma manufacturing companies are found selling scheduled formulation at prices higher than the ceiling prices fixed by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).
Shri Mandaviya, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Chemicals and Fertilizers said that NPPA has taken action against such companies under the relevant provisions of Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013 (DPCO, 2013).
Overcharged amount, along with interest is levied on the manufacturing company. Similar action is taken whenever companies are found selling non-scheduled formulation at a price which is 10% higher than the MRP of the preceding twelve months.
And during investigation, number of things came on frontend like some companies have launched the formulation without taking prior price approval from NPPA and not following the provisions related to ‘new drugs’.
We can see the change if government officials work actively and not give any chance of corruption during the processes. Government has sent notifications to the concerned manufacturers to do their business with the rules prepared by government and wrote them to furnish certified batch wise production and sales details along with the maximum retail price for the formulations from the date of launch of the product till date.
The provisions and laws will definitely help end users if mediators stop doing business to fill their pockets and keep the manufacturing and selling process free from corruption.
Government worked hard to create policies to make medical facilities affordable to the people of the country, especially the poor ones. And according to government, The National Health Policy, 2017 provides for increasing public expenditure on health to 2.5% of GDP in a time bound manner by 2025.
