The centre said Wednesday it has brought 42 non-scheduledanti-cancer drugs under price control, capping trade margin at 30
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) hasinvoked extraordinary powers in public interest, under Para 19 of the Drugs (PricesControl) Order, 2013 to bring 42 non-scheduled anti-cancer drugs under pricecontrol through trade margin rationalisation, an official release said.
“Invoking paragraph 19 of DPCO, 2013, the governmenthereby puts a cap on trade margin of 30 per cent and directs manufacturers tofix their retail price based on price at first point of sale of product… Ofthe non-scheduled formulations containing any of the 42 drugs,” theDepartment of Pharmaceuticals (DOP) said in a notification. As per data availablewith NPPA, the MRP for 105 brands will be reduced up to 85 per cent entailingminimum saving of Rs 105 crore to consumers, it added.
Currently, 57 anti-cancer drugs are under price controlas scheduled formulations. Now 42non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines have been selected for price regulation byrestricting trade margin on the selling price (MRP) up to 30 per cent, thenotification said.
“These would cover 72 formulations and 355 brands asper data available with NPPA. More data is being collected from hospitals andmanufacturers to finalise the list,” it added.
The drug manufacturers have been given seven days torecalculate the prices and inform the NPPA, state drug controllers, stockistsand retailers, it said. The revised prices shall come into effect from March,8, it added.
The NPPA currently fixes prices of drugs placed in theNational List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) under Schedule-I of the DPCO. Sofar, around 1000 drugs have been brought under price control under the initiative.Non-scheduled drugs are allowed an increase of up to 10 per cent in pricesevery year, which is monitored by the NPPA.