With an aim to ensure accessibility and availability of quality drugs to the public at large, the Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) has urged department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) to restructure Drug (Prices Control) Order, 2013 by shifting focus from excessive price control of scheduled drugs and devices to the moderate price monitoring of all scheduled as well as non-scheduled drugs and devices.
Presently price control is applicable for only NLEM drugs, but not for the non- NLEM drugs. However, as the price control is so tight, it almost discourages the manufacturers and forces many to discontinue production of the formulation containing such reduced price molecules. This has led to decreased access and availability of some NLEM medicines to the patients. Thus, in many cases, instead of benefiting the patient, the price control becomes counterproductive and resulted in increased costs to the patients as they have no option but to purchase higher priced alternative molecules, which are not under price control, said the IPA in a memorandum to DoP.
The memorandum was sought by a six-member panel, set up by DoP last month to review the scope of DPCO, 2013, suggest ways to strengthen the regulatory provisions of the order and come out with measures to make pricing policy in favour of affordable medicare and health security.
The committee comprised of two joint secretaries from DoP, member secretary of NPPA, a joint secretary from health ministry, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) and executive director of National Health System Resource Centre (NHSRC).
The IPA further said that price control only for the NLEM molecules needs to be reviewed and it is important to determine the exact market share of the NLEM molecules. Current estimates show that NLEMs only have a 25% share of the domestic pharmaceutical market, while 75% of the marketed medicines are not under price control. It is necessary to ensure that a "reasonable" price control is applied on all drugs in the market.
Cosmetics, food supplements (nutraceuticals), AYUSH products are not under price control. Many of these are prescribed along with NLEMs. It is necessary to bring these products also under price control.
Present method of arriving at a price, based on market proportions of various formulations of medicines needs to be reconsidered and an appropriate method of fixing prices based on the manufacturing cost may be used again after making required modifications, said Kaushik Desai, general secretary, IPA.
Irrational drugs and dangerous fixed dose combinations (FDCs) are to be reduced drastically.
When prices are brought down for a particular medicines, those products which are already in the market should be permitted to be sold at the existing prices till the stocks are exhausted, otherwise the situation would lead to confusion and chaos, he concluded.