Highly annoyed by what they call as 'policing' by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), some of the pharma associations want to take the matter to the apex court. But general feeling among the industry is to wait till the finalization of new pharmaceutical policy.

Some in the industry alleged that the Chemicals Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had given a free hand to the NPPA to act against the industry under the pretext of price control, but it sometimes even crossed the limits. "Some cases are raised and notices are being sent on flimsy grounds. Ultimately charges were dropped in some cases, but only after creating lots of hassles and leaving the image of the company in bad light in the public eye," an industry leader complained.

Some industry bodies are keen to move the apex court at the earliest, as they cannot get a compassionate hearing even from the ministry or other authorities. However, the general consensus is to wait till the finalization of the pharmaceutical policy, which is under the consideration of the Group of Ministers, as uncertainty still prevails over the possibility of bringing more drugs under control as proposed by the chemicals ministry.

"The policy can go either way. Depending on that, we will chalk out the further action including approaching the Supreme Court. Right now, the government and the NPPA are banking on the Supreme Court direction on essential medicines. But, the court had given ample room to decide on the matter by the Government. It did not mean that the NPPA could act as per its whims," another leader said.

Meanwhile, the NPPA sources said the agency was empowered to do so under the DPCO and more and more companies acted erratically on price increase, inviting action from the regulator which was acting in the interest of the consumers.

Apart from bringing more drugs under control, the recent efforts by the NPPA to fix pro-rata price on strips, blisters and oral liquids also did not go down well with the industry. The NPPA move to attach the properties of chronic defaulters was another instant that irked the industry players.
Industry has also not been so happy with the NPPA revising the maximum ceiling in prices of drugs per year from earlier 20 per cent to 10 per cent. The associations have also tried to roll it back, but the Chemicals Ministry passed it on to the NPPA which actually cannot take such a decision.