As it did not receive comments from the stakeholders on expected lines, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has extended the date for sending comments and suggestions on the 'report on the price negotiations for patented drugs' till May 7, 2013.

After several years of dilly-dallying on the issue, an expert panel constituted by the DoP had submitted its report to the Department in February this year. Immediately after the submission of the report by the committee, the DoP had  asked the stakeholders and experts to send their comments and suggestions by March 31 this year to take a final view on the report. But, as it did not get much response from the stakeholders, the department has now extended the date till May 7.

In its report, the committee had recommended a formula on price negotiation of patented drugs, linking it to the per capita income in the country. It also suggested setting up a committee headed by the chairman of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to decide the price of patented drugs before they are marketed for use in India.

The report said, “The committee can be named as Pricing Committee for Patented Drugs (PCPD).The other members of the committee could be from Railway, DGHS, DCGI, Ministry of Finance and Representatives of top 5 (five) health insurance companies in terms of number of beneficiaries. The committee may co-opt any other members as deemed fit. To have proper watch on the prices of these patented medicines, a separate set-up may be created in NPPA with adequate staff strength and infrastructure.”

“The countries like UK, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand have a wide coverage of health insurance by their governments and therefore have high bargaining power in deciding the price of such patented medicines through negotiations. Therefore, it is recommended that the reference prices of the patented medicines to be used for price negotiations in India will be the procurement prices of those medicines by governments of the aforesaid countries,” according to the panel.

While suggesting the methodology for price negotiations for medicines having no therapeutic equivalence in India, the panel said the originator company will submit to the Committee the government procurement price list of UK, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand. In case the company has not launched its patented medicines in any one of the aforesaid countries, the company will submit the said price lists only in respect of those countries in which the medicines have been launched and are being procured by the respective Governments, according to the report.