The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) has urged the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to mandate all the manufacturers of drugs, whose ceiling prices were recently reduced with the reduction in WPI for some of the formulations under NLEM, to circulate supplementary price list to the retailers or else call back the stock for correction in MRPs.

The organisation has informed NPPA that many companies have adopted different interpretations and therefore trade is totally in confused state as to what to do with different stand adopted by pharma companies as none of them has justified their stand with legal backing.

J S Shinde, president of AIOCD says, “We have found that some of the manufacturers though have reduced the prices only in their invoices as per NPPA guideline but physically supplying the products with old MRPs to dealers and asking the distributors or retailers to sell it at lesser price. They are informing distributors to circulate this information to retail chemists. This is absolutely not acceptable, because manufacturers have failed to provide the price lists to retail chemists as mandated in DPCO-2013 and can expose retail chemists to legal action in case of oversight by them.

He further says, “As per the clarification of NPPA dated April 12, 2016, many companies are taking shelter under this umbrella by referring one line of point 2 which says “recalling or relabeling or re labeling on the label of the container or pack or released stocks in the market prior to date of notifications, is not mandatory” but are not taking cognizance of later part of the same point. It says, “If manufacturers are submitting revised price list, as stated in office memorandum of NPPA, are able to ensure price compliance at the retailer level. Putting the stickers or revised prices is being practiced by many manufacturers which is the preferred option by retailers as intimated to NPPA by their associations.”

The organisation has demanded to allow at least 90 days to sell the stock available with the retailer or wholesalers so that the retailers and wholesalers do not face the practical difficulties as some of the manufacturers has not issued supplementary price list to traders.

“We have urged NPPA to ensure that they do not force our members to accept the stocks having higher than ceiling price. We will appreciate if all such products having higher than ceiling price are recalled from the trade and re-labelled with new price. Also issue new price list up to retail chemist as well. This will remove any ambiguity and help to establish a uniform system for better compliance,” said Shinde.