 "Govt takes away regulator's powers to fix prices of non-essential drugs in future")
New Delhi: India’s decision to withdraw the drug pricing authority’s powers to fix the prices of non-essential medicines will be on a prospective basis, and will not affect price caps imposed in July on 108 drugs, a senior government official said on Tuesday.
The official in the drug pricing authority declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The Department of Pharmaceuticals withdrew guidelines issued on May 29 that gave the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) the powers to fix the prices of drugs that are not on the essential medicines list, the latter said in a notice late on Monday.
“It’s a prospective withdrawal, not a retrospective withdrawal” the official told Reuters.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had invoked Para 19 of the Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO) to cap prices of 108 cardiac and diabetes drugs on July 10.
[caption id=“attachment_88771” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Getty images[/caption]
“In compliance with the directions received from the government in the Department of Pharmaceuticals…the aforesaid internal guidelines issued by the NPPA on May 29, 2014 under Paragraph 19 of DPCO 2013 are hereby withdrawn with immediate effect,” NPPA said in a statement.
The drug regulator, in an earlier notification, had invoked Paragraph 19 of DPCO, 2013 to bring 108 anti-diabetic and cardiovascular formulation packs under the price control.
Several industry bodies, including Indian Pharma Alliance (IPA), had criticised the NPPA’s move.
Paragraph 19 of DPCO, 2013, authorises the NPPA in extraordinary circumstances, if it considers it necessary to do so in public interest, to fix the ceiling price or retail price of any drug for such period as it deems fit.
Under the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013, the Government already controls the prices of 348 drugs listed in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM).
By invoking para 19 of DPCO, NPPA had extended price control to drugs outside of NLEM.
With inputs from Agencies
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