The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has clarified that there was no confusion about the implementation of the new prices as per the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013 in the market, in the wake of the orders by the Delhi High Court in two cases on Tuesday.
The Court has not allowed the companies to sell the old stocks as per the old prices, but has asked them to instead furnish supplementary price list to the retailers and the drug controllers in respect of formulations covered under various price notifications, DoP joint secretary Shambhu Kallolikar said.
“The Court has not asked the Department to file any affidavit also. Court has not stopped the implementation of the DPCO either. The companies were asked to give supplementary price lists which will be followed by the retailers. There cannot be any confusion in the implementation of new prices as companies know that they should go by the DPCO,” Kallolikar told Pharmabiz, while commenting on the court order.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday passed orders in two cases, filed by Cipla and Sun Pharma against the specific provision under DPCO to sport new price labels within a period of 45 days from the date of fixing new prices.
"If the petitioner furnishes the price list/supplementary price list in respect of the formulations covered under various price notifications issued under DPCO 2013 and the price lists are distributed to the dealers, the state drug controller and the government, then in that case, the respondent (the government) shall not take coercive measures against the petitioner (drug firm) in respect of the said formulations (essential drugs manufactured by the company)," the court said.
DoP official also clarified that the Government will stick to the order by the Court and would not take any coercive measures against the companies. “There is also no need to approach the High Court at this stage as we don’t find any confusion with the orders,” he added.
On monitoring whether the new prices were implemented by the companies, he said there was a mechanism in place with the help of the drug controllers in the States, NGOs and the public who can take up the violations with the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) for action.
For the first set of 151 essential drugs, prices of which were notified by the NPPA on June 14, the new prices mandated by the DPCO 2013 were to kick in from Monday. However, the court order had reportedly caused confusion about the implementation.