202 cases of ceiling price violations has been referred by the Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) during the lockdown period of March, April and May through its Price Monitoring and Research Unit (PMRU).
PMRU operations has been started by the state drug regulators in all the 33 districts of the state from October 1, 2019 onwards to track price violations by the pharma companies. The systematic form is the part of NPPA policy to keep an oversight on pharma companies for any kind of drug price violation.
Gujarat FDCA Commissioner Dr H G Koshia said that “Having manned with information technology (IT) staff, the PMRU which is led by a project co-ordinator having a Pharm D qualification is assisted by three field investigators to bring in insights about price violations in real time. At present NPPA is reviewing the cases of violations and will get back with details of the amount to be recovered from the offending companies.”
NPPA has recently set up PMRU in Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory (UT). Till date, PMRUs have been established in various states- 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).
According to the notification stated, “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.”
As of now, consent has been given by 21 states for formation of PMRU. These are Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Punjab, Tripura, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Nagaland, Goa, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
