[india-drug] Re: India's Drug Pricing Policy (2)

["Kannamma " <kannamma24@rediffmail.com>]

India's Drug Pricing Policy (2)
**********
  
Hello,

While the suggestion that a number of drugs are going to be brought under price control is a welcome move, we need to recognise that price control by itself is not always a solution. The Mark-up scheme that the DPCO has always adopted often acts as an incentive to increase prices. Hence the maximum mark-up that will be given to each drug needs to be watched very carefully.
Secondly, companies often go to the court challenging the price and the matter stays in the court for years together. It has been noticed that the price of bulk drugs does come down in the meantime and yet the price fixed by the government remains unduly high. The best known example of this is Ciproloxacin. The price was much higher than the market rate.
It should also be noted that the NPPA is not able to regularly revise the prices of even 74 drugs that is presently on the price control list. I am wondering as to what would happen if the number is increased to over 300. 
In the meanwhile, the industry is already gearing up to scuttle the move of bringing more drugs under DPCO.
So our work is really cut our for us and we need to start examining the proposed policy carefully.

Dr. Kannamma Raman
Reader in Public Administration
Department of Civics and Politics
University of Mumbai
Email: "Kannamma " <kannamma24@rediffmail.com>