The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) need to acquire more teeth to tackle the pricing of drugs with a revamping of the structure as per a draft proposal mooted by the Plan Panel for the next Five Year Plan.

The working group on the drugs and pharmaceuticals for the 11th Plan, in its report, has suggested some drastic changes in regulatory mechanism, besides putting forward many steps to equip the NPPA to meet the challenges of the evolving drug scenario.

``In order to enable NPPA discharge its responsibilities more effectively, there is an immediate need to bring about some fundamental changes in its working,'' the report said.

As an immediate step, an independent and autonomous body by the name of National Drug Authority should be constituted in place of the present Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation. In the long run, the NPPA and the NDA could be considered to be merged to form a National Authority on Drugs and Therapeutics (NADT) which will lead to an integrated regulatory system in the country, it said.

The present structure and working of the body be revamped to bring in greater transparency in the organization like making available information on the |NPPA website pertaining to various norms, guidelines, details of ceiling of prices of various drugs etc., the working group said.

The report also suggested fixing of the tenure of the chairman for minimum two years with a maximum age limit as 62 years. Strengthening of the monitoring system through appropriate computerization is another recommendation. A system of online filing of prices on a six-month basis and providing of other information by industry to be developed.

A regular linkage between NPPA with the State Drug Controllers through a dedicated drug price monitoring cell in each of the major States and online electronic linkage be established. The full cost of the same should be met by the central government.

``Review of all existing guidelines, norms and procedures followed by the NPPA for fixing prices of bulk drugs and formulations must be done by a committee set up by the department of chemicals and petrochemicals. Among others, this committee would also include representatives of pharmaceutical industry,'' the draft said.

A task force set up by the Government to `explore options other than price control for achieving the objective of making available life-saving drugs at reasonable prices was also recommended. Both the functions of drug regulation and price control could thus be performed by the same agency and that would lead to an integrated regulatory system.