The Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives' Associations of India (FMRAI) has urged the government to take stringent action against bulk drugs manufacturers in the country for flagrant violation of Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO) promulgated by the central government to control the prices of essential medicines.

In a letter circulated to the law makers (MPs) of this country, the FMRAI has said that some of the bulk drug manufacturers in the country are openly flouting the DPCO order, thus making the medicines costly. "We draw your attention to the serious situation that has been allowed to engulf the medicine sector of our country. It is found that the pharmaceutical industry has taken advantage of the failure of the Government to regulate the anarchic behaviour of the industry. In many cases the industry had colluded with the Government machinery to maintain their reckless profit earning", the FMRAI said.

In its efforts to control the prices of essential medicines, the central government had issued Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO) and had fixed prices of certain regulated medicines. National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) was given the responsibility to fix the prices and monitor its compliance. In order to control the prices of formulations, NPPA was given similar task to regulate prices of bulk drug also.

But, the industry developed various mechanisms to hoodwink government regulations to hike prices of bulk drugs. Giving an example, the FMRAI said "while producing one key bulk drug the company manipulated its price data submitted to the NPPA. The cost of this bulk drug was Rs.29,744 per kg which was further hiked to Rs.31,584 per kg when the same medicine was available in the market at Rs. 9,250 per kg.

"Similarly Alembic devised a mechanism to stall declaring ceiling price of Erythromycin Estolate for about a year which has helped them to earn Rs. 20.98 crores during this period by overcharging. M/s Wockhardt invented another mechanism to falsify NPPA. While submitting cost data on Dextropropoxyphen for which they are the largest single producer in the country they have shoed landed cost of imported intermediate chemical, D Camphor Sulphonic Acid much higher than that available in India. Even the fact was known to NPPA who do not bother to mend Wockhardt to use indigenous raw material but approved price of Dexoproposiphen Rs.1500 per kg more than other manufacturers. This has given Wockhardt a benefit to earn Rs 14.00 crores per annum simply by manipulation of cost data. This shows that anything is possible for cost manipulation to keep the bulk drug prices high", FMRAI said.