National drug pricing authority NPPA has identified 634 cases where non-compliance with the notified price ceilings is suspected, Parliament has been informed.
As stipulated in Drugs (Price Control) Order (DPCO) 2013, the NPPA sets the ceiling price for essential drugs in Schedule I. For medicines that are not under price control, manufacturers are allowed to increase the maximum retail price by 10 percent per year.
Following the analysis of market data and related reports of December 2016 presented by AIOCD-AWACS,NPPA identified 634 cases where there is a suspicion of non-compliance with the notified ceiling price, the Minister of State for Chemical and fertilizer, Mansukh L Mandaviya, said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.
The government had notified the DPCO 2013, which covers 680 formulations, with effect from May 15, 2014, replacing the 1995 order that regulated prices of only 74 bulk drugs.
