As per government report, patients have saved Rs. 12,447 crores after Price Fixation of Essential Medicines by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). NPPA is an independent Regulator for pricing of drugs and to ensure availability and accessibility of medicines at affordable prices.
Patients have saved around Rs. 4,547 Crore and Rs.1500 crore for coronary stents and knee implant respectively. Under NLEM (National list of Essential medicine) 2011 and 2015, consumers were able to save more than Rs. 5000 crore. They were able to save around Rs. 1350 crore for cardiovascular, antidiabetic and anticancer medicine.
NPPA has also been issued 2033 demand notices to pharmaceutical companies for overcharging.
After inclusion of National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), 2011 in the Schedule-I of DPCO, 2013, NPPA fixed the ceiling prices of 530 scheduled formulations. Schedule-I of DPCO, 2013 was amended by adopting NLEM, 2015. Accordingly, NPPA fixed the ceiling prices of 857 scheduled formulations.
It is notable that the ceiling prices of Coronary Stent were notified in February, 2017 resulting into reduction in price up to 85%. NPPA has fixed the ceiling prices of the Orthopedic Knee Implants in August, 2017 under para 19 of DPCO, 2013, resulting in to reduction in price up to 69%.
NPPA capped the maximum retail price of 106 formulations (anti-diabetic and cardiovascular) under para 19 of DPCO, 2013 in July, 2014. Further, NPPA capped the prices of 42 non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines under ‘Trade Margin Rationalization’ approach. Accordingly, MRP of 526 brands of these medicines have shown reduction up to 90%.
