The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has approved retail prices of 25 new drugs under the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013, in a meeting held in the end of July, 2021. The Authority meeting also opined that compulsory registration and standardisation of the products are required, for better compliance and enforcement of price regulation related to the trade margin capping of medical devices.

In a meeting held on July 29, 2021, under the Chairmanship of Shubhra Singh, chairman, NPPA, the Authority decided to fix retail price of new drugs including budesonide respule for Softdeal Pharmaceuticals (Rs. 17.79 per unit), paracetamol + caffeine tablet for Micro Labs (Rs. 2.81), metoprolol succinate (extended release) + cilnidipine telmisartan tablet for Pure & Cure Healthcare Pvt Ltd and Alembic Pharma (Rs. 10.16) and the combinations involving anti-diabetes drug dapagliflozin, among others.

The meeting, appraising the outcome of the price capping of five medical devices namely pulse oximeter, blood pressure monitoring machine, nebuliser, digital thermometer and glucometer, asked on the trade margin rationalisation (TMR), observed that 91 per cent of more than 1,000 brands of these devices have dropped prices up to 89 per cent. The downward revision of maximum retail price has been reported by imported and domestic brands across all the categories, it said.

“The Authority noted with satisfaction that price capping of medical devices based on TMR will result in passing on the benefits in price reduction to the consumers,” it said.

“The Authority deliberated upon the matter in detail and opined that for better compliance and enforcement of the price regulations, compulsory registration and standardisation of the product is required and CDSCO may initiate action on the reference already made in this regard,” added the minutes of the 223rd (overall ) and 91st meeting of the Authority under the DPCO.

It also suggested that State Drug Controller and Price Monitoring Resource Units (PMRUs) may take necessary steps for ensuring compliance and publicity for awareness generation.

The Authority noted that regarding the retail price of new drugs which were earlier approved based on the recommendation of the multidisciplinary committee of experts, the same are again placed before the Committee for subsequent application since the market based data is not available even after approval of the retail price of the formulations earlier.