New Delhi : The total outstanding amount pending to be paid by the pharmaceutical companies for alleged overcharging of pharmaceutical products till March 2021 was Rs. 8,098.78 crore, according to the drug price watchdog, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).
It has raised demand for around Rs. 27.56 crore during the year 2020-21 in 38 cases, NPPA said.
The total overcharged amount demanded by the NPPA, including interest, from the period between August, 1997 to March, 2021 was Rs. 9,407.36 crore, of which an amount of Rs. 1,308.58 crore has been realised. The amount outstanding following this is Rs. 8,098.78 crore, of which cases still under litigation are against a total demand of Rs. 6,612.10 crore.
Out of the total, demand of around Rs. 301.88 crore belongs to cases referred to collectors and the amount still to be recovered. Another Rs. 5.46 crore worth of cases are 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 the Authority has to collect is around Rs.1,179.34 crore, it added.
According to the revised provisional list of litigation cases, a total of 334 litigation cases for a principle overcharged amount of Rs. 2551.42 crore is still pending, along with a penalty of Rs. 30.84 crore and a total interest of around Rs. 4,723.37 crore. The litigations pending are from pharma majors including Cipla Ltd, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Ranbaxy, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddys Laboratories, Lupin Ltd, among others.
Of the total overcharged amount of Rs 7605.63 crore from these 334 cases, Rs. 984.1 crore has been recovered while the outstanding currently is around Rs. 6621.53 crore, according to the relevant documents released by the Authority.
Suo moto recovery for the period between October, 2020 to March, 2021 was Rs. 3.65 lakh in DPCO, 2013.
For the year 2020-21, the amount outstanding out of the demand raised for the year is Rs. 13.86 crore. The NPPA was able to realise Rs. 23.72 crore during the year, including Rs. 13.70 crore against the demand raised during the year.
During the year 2020-21, demands were raised against Abbot Healthcare Pvt Ltd for allegedly overcharging prices of Floxcip-TZ Tab (Rs. 41.83 lakh), Cipla Ltd for Levolin-1 tabs (Rs. 185.89 lakh), Akums Drugs and Phracmeuticals Ltd/Sunways (India) Pvt Ltd for Gatsun-P eye drops 5 ml (Rs. 81.13 lakh), Aurochem Pharma/Cadila Healthcare for Falcigo-SP Kit tab (Rs. 397.37 lakh), Baxter India Pvt Ltd dextrose and sodium product (principle overcharge amount Rs. 1.54 lakh), Ursa Pharma India for Xylo-POS nasal spray (Rs 225.96 lakh), Timo-Comod eye drops (Rs. 130.19 lakh), Terumo India Pvt Ltd for catheters (Rs. 166.56 lakh), Zimmer India for orthopaedic implants (Rs. 942 lakh), India Medtronic Pvt Ltd for ligatures, sutures and staplers (Rs. 44.51 lakh), Inter Medics for catheters (Rs. 16.35 lakh), among others.
Most of these demands raised during 2020-21 are under process at present. The Authority was also able to recovered the overcharged amount from companies like Zimmer India.
The demands made and the amount recovered during the year when Covid-19 hit the normal operations of the industry and various government offices, was lower compared to the demand (including interest) of Rs. 133.96 crore in 93 cases and a total amount realised of Rs. 84.68 crore, during 2019-20.
