PHARMA LITERATI

National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has issued a letter to all the State and Union Territories’ chief secretaries asking to issue/pass suitable instructions to district administrations/concerned authorities to facilitate the pharmaceutical companies and ensure unobstructed movement of raw materials, packaging materials, and manpower required to accomplish work-related to production, packaging and distribution during the lockdown period. After the lockdown announcement made by PM Modi, to prevent community transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country, the pharma industry along with retail chemists, wholesalers, pharma C&F agents of drugs and medicines and other members associated with the supply chain started facing a problem in the movement of goods, especially during the initial days of lockdown. S V Veerramani, Chairman and Managing Director, Fourrts Laboratories said, “ The Government doesn’t want a shortage of medicine supply in the country and f...

The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has urged the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) and the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to include balloon catheters and guiding catheters under National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) as was done for coronary stents. The Maharashtra FDA has submitted a study report to the DCGI in this regard. While a coronary stent is a small metal mesh tube that is surgically embedded in blocked coronary arteries, various accessories like balloon catheter and guiding catheters are used during the procedure to ease the pathway for flow of blood.  Following complaints received by the drug pricing watchdog NPPA that hospitals had increased the prices of balloons and catheters after the capping of stent prices in February 2017, a government constituted panel had recommended that the accessories also be classified as essential drugs, bringing them under price control. Says a senior FDA official, “ Recommendation...

A document released by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) shows that consumers are being overcharged for more than 100 drugs sold on the market. The government body released the data on its website last month. It shows that several pharmaceutical firms have been overcharging customers for commonly used drugs, such as anti-diabetic and cholesterol lowering tablets. The NPPA, which puts out this quarterly data on its website, has issued notices to the pharmaceutical companies. The report shows that they overcharged consumers to the tune of Rs36.8 crore for a single drug. “ Pharmaceuticals overcharge in many ways. Companies that manufacture non-scheduled drugs cannot increase the prices more than 10% of the MRP. However, they do so ,” said Dr Bhupendra Singh, chairman, NPPA. “ It all depends on the market volume of the drugs. The company may have overpriced a drug by between 50 paisa and Rs10, but when one looks at the cumulative figures, the amount run...

NPPA in its present form may be wound up and deployed in pharma dept with new mandate In a major overhaul of the country's drug policy, the government is likely to soon disband the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) in its present form and assume the power to set prices of essential medicines, as it seeks to address concerns that excessive controls were stifling innovation and competitiveness of the sector. The revamped policy will also delink price control from essential medicines. Under the current regime, the moment a drug is brought under the list of essential medicines; it is subject to price control mechanism. The new system will be more flexible and prices will be regulated only when needed. Senior government officials also decided last month to do away with the system of periodic renewal of licences for manufacturing and sale of drugs in the country. Licences will soon be granted for perpetuity . These decisions follow a meeting last month at th...

In an order that will spell relief for diabetic and heart patients, the Bombay high court has refused to stay a July 2014 notification of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) which placed price caps on 108 single-formulation drugs used for cancer, HIV, cardiovascular, and diabetes treatment. The division bench ruled that the government was not exceeding its powers when regulating the prices as these medicines were required to be taken by the “ever increasing number of patients” throughout their life. The Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) , a group of pharma companies, had gone to court against the notification pointing out that these drugs did not fall under the “essential” criteria and were not scheduled drugs and therefore not eligible for price control. The IPA had termed the NPPA’s action arbitrary and violative of their fundamental rights. The NPPA notification in July was based on guidelines issued in May that gave the NPPA powers to cap authority under ...

Drug pricing regulator NPPA has revised ceiling prices of 22 formulations of Schedule-I under Drugs (Price Control) Amendment Order, 2016 and Retail Prices of 13 formulations under DPCO, 2013 in related notification dated August 17. Name of the scheduled formulations are ·          atropine injection, ·          ibuprofen tablet -200mg, ·          ibuprofen-400mg, ·          neostigmine injection, ·          carbamazepine oral liquid, ·          diazepam suppository, ·          phenobarbitone injection, ·          nitrofurantoin tablet, ·          rifampicin, ·        ...

The Times of India reported that the entire idea of a central scheme for free drug distribution has been given a quiet burial. Joint secretary (policy) in the health ministry Manoj Jhalani said that there will be no separate central scheme for free drugs and diagnostics. "Free drug provision will be done by the states under the National Health Mission (NHM ). The Centre will financially incentivise states to start the free drug scheme," Jhalani said. Following this news, on April 9, 2015, Injeti Srinivas, chairman of India's National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), has been moved from his post to the position of director general of the Sports Authority of India . Srinivas, who was appointed to the position in June of last year, will continue to hold additional charge as NPPA chairman until "alternative arrangements are made." In July 2014, the NPPA implemented price controls for more than 100 drugs used in the treatment of diabetes and cardi...