Several pharmaceutical manufacturers in Kerala have not been implementing the mandatory practice of providing price list to the retailers, distributors and state Drug Controller, violating the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), 1995 of the Union Chemicals Ministry, it is learnt.

According to the DPCO, 1995 issued by the department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, "Every manufacturer or importer shall issue a price list and supplementary price list, if required, of the non-scheduled formulations in Form V to the dealers, state Drug Controllers and the government indicating changes, from time to time."

The Form V in the second schedule of the DPCO is supposed to contain, name of the product (bulk drug/formulation and its dosage form), composition approved by drug control authorities, specifications of the pack excise duty, local tax, price to be retailed (inclusive) of excise (duty), retail price (inclusive of excise duty) maximum retail price inclusive of all taxes and effective batch number and date.

The price list has to be submitted by the companies compulsorily by April 1st of every year. But, this was not being followed in Kerala and even the Drug Controller has not been getting a copy of the price list. The manufacturers keep changing the price of their product at least 10 times a year as per the demand. There is no control on the prices. This is due to the poor enforcement of Drug Control Department in the state, sources said.

Price list is distributed to the retailers and government department to avoid disparity in prices when the medicines are sold or distributed. But as the manufacturers have not been providing the price list, nobody can detect whether there is any disparity in the pricing, sources said.

According to the DPCO, "Every retailer and dealer shall display the price list and the supplementary price list, if any, as furnished by the manufacturer or importer, on a conspicuous part of the premises where he carries on business in a manner so as to be easily accessible to any person wishing to consult the same."

"If a customer has some doubts about the price of the medicine, he can ask for the price list for verifying it. If the list is unavailable at the business premises, it cane be presumed that the dealer is selling the medicine at a higher cost," sources said.

Meanwhile the Pharmacy Council sources also said, that the retailers in Kerala were not getting any sort of information from the manufacturers about the price list. He also said, that the retailers were not even informed when a new drug is launched in the state.

Meanwhile, a spokesman in the Kerala Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PMA) denied the allegation that the manufacturers were not providing the price list to the Drug Control department. "The Drug Control department is very strict on the issue of price list. The issue would be discussed in the next PMA meeting and if found true it would be resolved at the earliest", the spokesman said.