After a consistent push to tweak drug pricing laws, the central government is set to meet the stakeholders from the pharma and medical device industry this month, News18 has learnt.
The meeting – which is likely to be inaugurated and chaired by union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya – is tentatively scheduled to take place on May 16 in New Delhi.
What’s on agenda
The drug price watchdog, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) – under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers – has been given the charge to hold the meeting, dubbed ‘workshop’, to answer industry concerns.
The government will invite associations of pharmaceutical companies as well as the medical device sector.
“The objective of the meeting will be to review the working of Drug Pricing Control Order (DPCO), 2013 and National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy, 2012 (NPPP, 2012),” a government official told News18.
DPCO and NPPP are the rulebooks for the pharmaceutical and medical device industry which regulates the availability and pricing of medicines and medical devices in India.
“The department of pharmaceuticals as well as NPPA have been receiving various suggestions from the industry for amendments in DPCO as well as NPPP,” the official said while adding that “to start the conversation with the industry, the meeting in the shape of a workshop will be organised with all the industry stakeholders”.
It will be attended by S Aparna, secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), Kamlesh Kumar Pant, chairman of NPPA, Vinod Kotwal, member secretary of NPPA, and Awadesh Kumar Choudhury, economic adviser at DOP.
Similar meeting took place in 2017
“Similar meeting, where the industry expressed its concerns over pricing and policy, took place more than five years ago in 2017. However, the points raised in the meeting continue to remain pending,” an industry veteran told News18, requesting anonymity.
Several issues have been raised by the industry which need to be fixed in Indian laws regulating the market, he said
“For instance, the rule where industry is asked to recall the entire stock from the market in case of any price change and relabel the stock, roll it back into the market,” said the industry veteran. “The industry has been requesting the government to bring in prospective pricing where new pricing is applicable on the next batches of production.”
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