The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) would look into the demands of the trade associations including that of Bangalore District Chemists & Druggists Association (BDC&DA) which is now insisting to fix the retail margins at 20 per cent and wholesale margins at 10 per cent. Current margins are at 16 per cent for retailers and 8 per cent for wholesalers.

At an event titled ‘Modifications in Drug Price Control Order  (DPCO) 2013,’ organized by BDC&DA in Bengaluru', NPPA chairman CP Singh and Joint secretary in the department of pharmaceuticals, Shambu Kallolikar have given an assurance that all efforts would be made to look into the issue on the trade margins.

According to the NPPA chief, “Since the DPCO 2013 was cleared by a Parliamentary Committee, there was need to put it before the government again for required modifications and also bring to the notice the issues related to the same.  The Ministry of Law would also need to be included in the deliberations to take a final decision on this.”

“Chemists fraternity has a large representation and so the convention on Modifications in Drug Price Control Order  (DPCO) 2013 was a good opportunity to get a firsthand view from the pharmacists on their challenges of reduced margins,” said the NPPA chief.

Further, there was also need to have a coordinated inter-departmental approach to handle the trade margin problem among others issues put forth by BDC&DA. In the wake of the several writ petitions  before the High Courts of Karnataka, Mumbai and Delhi, there were constraints to deliberate on this,   pointed out the NPPA chief.

“BDC&DA had a point to make on their plight about the earnings. There was also  lack of easy access to a single source of information about pharma  manufacturers and drugs they produced or marketed at prices,” stated the NPPA chief.

On a similar note, Kallolikar stated, “ DPCO 2013 was a changeable document. Based on the ground realities which is in the interest of the country, we will definitely look to doing our best.”

Earlier, V Hari Krishna, president, BDC&DA brought to the notice of the central and state government officials on the rising costs which made it impossible for pharmacy trade to survive. Our profit is our earnings  and going by the current escalating costs, the government needed to look at the pharmacy trade and fulfill its demands. Pharmacy trade was engaged in a service of selling  quality drugs to the patients and therefore the needs of the  retailers and wholesalers needed to be met.

Addressing pharmacy trade representatives, Dr. BR Jagashetty, Karnataka Drugs Controller, said that presence of a pharmacist and need for refrigeration systems units to store certain drugs that required low temperature were mandated in a pharmacy outlets.