Close on the heels of Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) giving its consent to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to set up a price monitoring cell in the state for effective detection of drug price violations, the state regulator is waiting to implement the same with the help of much needed funds to be sanctioned by the Centre. Funds to the tune of Rs.30 lakhs will soon be sanctioned by the Centre for the purpose.

The monitoring cell will work independently with a team of scientific officers and drug inspectors with the help of computer operators recruited with financial aid from the central government. The computer operators will work in close coordination with the manufacturers and drug inspectors for feeding relevant price control data for further evaluation and action.

NPPA had discussed and proposed the plan with the state drug regulator to set up a dedicated administrative cell within its office in 2015. While the expenditure related to manpower, amenities and other infrastructural cost will be borne by the Centre, state government will have to provide the space for setting up the office within the state drug regulatory office, as per the plan.

As per the provisions of the law, NPPA will give certain monetary benefits to set up the cell and is in the process of allocating a budget on the same. The NPPA cell at state headquarters will ensure that violations on drug pricing are reported and addressed on time, said a senior FDA official. According to Maharashtra FDA commissioner Dr Harshadeep Kamble, "Based on our consent on the same, we are awaiting a positive response from the NPPA. ”

NPPA held a meeting with all the state drug controllers in 2015 in Delhi to set up price monitoring cells in all the states across the country. With the implementation of the plan, violations reported will be dealt timely with the help of the state NPPA cells in case they find any contravention to the provisions of Drug Price control Order (DPCO-2013).

Through the price monitoring cells, NPPA will closely work with the state drug regulators to find out any discrepancies that affect the consumers. The officials heading the cell will report their findings to the NPPA directly in case they find any pharma company violating the law by selling the drugs above the ceiling price.

Under the proposed scheme, the cell is to be headed by one person along with a team of NPPA officials whose strength will vary as per the size of the pharma industry in the respective states. NPPA has categorised the states based on three categories, i.e. based on maximum, minimum and least number of pharma companies in the state for better division of work.