There is a reported move on the part of the NPPA to fix a cap on trade margins offered by the pharmaceutical companies on drugs outside the price control. A notification amending the DPCO 1995 is being planned to be issued in this regard for the purpose. The step is expected to empower the price control authority to regulate excessive trade margins offered by the drug companies which ultimately push up the MRP of pharmaceutical products. Although there are 74 drugs and their formulations under price control as per the DPCO 1995, hardly 40 are being produced and marketed by the pharmaceutical companies. Manufacture and marketing of rest of the drugs were discontinued over the years by pharmaceutical industry to escape price control. This would mean that more than 500 drugs marketed in the country are outside the price control. As per the provisions of the DPCO,1995, the minimum trade margins for the drugs under price control are fixed at 16 per cent for retailers and 8 per cent for wholesalers. In case of drugs outside price control, DPCO provisions allow the trade margins to be negotiated between industry and the trade. To a large extend, there has been compliance with regard to grant of minimum trade margins on price controlled drugs for some years although a few companies used to pay more than what is stipulated to push their products. Whereas in the case of drugs outside price control, there has been hardly any limit to the trade margins offered by the companies. Almost all the medium and small scale drug companies have been offering margins ranging from 500 to 1000 per cent on their products pushing up the retail prices of decontrolled drugs. Although large companies have also been offering much higher margins for their decontrolled products than the controlled products, their emphasis has been more on promotion. That is, they spend heavily on physicians by offering huge incentives to generate more prescriptions. Now, by giving huge trade margins by medium and small companies for their products and offering hefty incentives to medical practitioners by large companies, the ultimate load is coming on the retail price. As the NPPA is expected to have no control on decontrolled products, this unethical trade practice has been going on unchecked for several years at the cost of patients. A scrutiny of this unfair trade practices started only after Ram Vilas Paswan took over as the Union chemicals minister. After he took up the issue nearly two years ago some restraint among the industry in offering huge margins and incentives to doctors was noticed. But several companies continue to indulge in this unfair trade practice even today. The government's move to bring a statutory support to curb this unethical practice should now work. The newly set up Enforcement Wing of NPPA will be of great assistance in this regard.