The Goa Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association (GPMA) has urged the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to extend the implementation date of the new Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013, by at least four months instead of the 45 days, once the ceiling prices of 348 essential drugs is declared.

Expressing concern over the short time-line set by the NPPA for enforcing the DPCO 2013, the GPMA pointed out that though the industry as a whole is supportive of the new DPCO, which is based on pharmaeconomics, i.e. based on the simple average of market price of a product, the 45 days enforcement time set by the government has pushed the industry into a chaotic and confused condition.

According to GPMA president A K Burman, considering the huge supply chain market in the country it is not practically possible to liquidate the current stock in the trade, which is spread among more than two lakh retail outlets, within 45 days. “We urge the government to do a thorough study of the market dynamics prevalent in the country before setting such a deadline which is impossible to implement. If the government had a clear understanding of the supply chain management in the country they would never have set the enforcement date to 45 days as it is inappropriate and nearly impossible considering all factors,” he added.

He pointed out that such unrealistic demands set by the government is only further increasing the hardships faced by the small scale and medium scale manufacturers, when they are already grappling with other issues caused due to rampant changes in the regulatory requirements without any government aid like implementation of bar codes, stringent GMP regulations etc.

The GPMA, which had recently made a representation to the government in this regard, stressed that since withdrawing any particular product from the market for relabeling or reprinting involves lot of hardships and tension for the stakeholders involved, in the light of huge supply chain, it is only imperative to extend the timeline to minimum four months. The association wants the government to seriously consider this proposition keeping in mind the interest of the patients to ensure undisrupted supply of essential drugs to the patients.