Resentment is brewing among the pharmaceutical companies over what they termed 'policing' by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) over the drug companies in the name of price control. Infuriated over the NPPA's recent moves, the industry is getting ready to meet senior ministers in the central government to restrain the NPPA's over-zealousness.

The NPPA has recently set up an enforcement wing to prevent drug companies from circumventing the law to escape price control and to ensure that the drug companies are pricing their products as per government guidelines. The enforcement wing under Pharmexcil executive director Dr PV Appaji will examine 500 new drugs entering the market every month in this regard.

The NPPA, which was formed to ensure fair prices to essential medicines that were brought under price control, has been active in identifying those who violate the government guidelines and overcharging the common man by putting more prices on medicines. It did not even spare big Indian drug companies against which the government body has slapped hundreds of crore of notices for violating the government guidelines.

But, the industry is annoyed over what they said the 'over enthusiasm' of the NPPA. The NPPA was set up to watch the prices of medicines under price control only. But over a period of time, it has started evaluating the prices of all the medicines. It is not the job of the NPPA to evaluate each and every product, an industry expert said. "The NPPA has become a nuisance and its actions a torture. In the name of price control it is wielding "lathis" on the industry like a policeman," an industry expert said. "We are thinking of meeting the ministers to stop this over-indulgence of the NPPA", he added on condition of anonymity.

Experts in the industry rued that the NPPA is, in fact, comparing the prices of medicines with that of other essential commodities like sugar and rice. It is not correct because the drug industry is entirely different from other industries. "We are not selling a product, but a concept. There are several costs like educating the doctors, promotional costs, research and development costs, etc. So it is not fair to fix a price on the basis of material cost to selling price like any other commodity", experts said.

There is a school of thought in the industry that since the Group of Ministers headed by Sharad Pawar is finalising the new Pharmaceutical Policy, the NPPA should not do anything hastily till the new Policy is announced. The main agenda before the GoM is whether the government should control the prices of the essential medicines or it should be left to the market forces.