A serious shortage of essential and life saving drugs is likely to emerge in the country if the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) is going ahead with the implementation of the new Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) without making some key changes to the Order.

The DPCO, 2013 provides for only 45 days time for the pharmaceutical companies to clear the old stocks and enforce the new ceiling prices the department is going to fix. This period will be too short a time for the pharma companies to effect the new prices considering the number of retail chemists, wholesalers and stockists.

To call back the old stocks from six lakh retail chemists across the country through wholesalers and stockists, stick new price labels and send the stocks back to the trade channels is highly time consuming exercise and 45 days are not enough. The whole process involves additional costs to manufacturers, industry sources said.

Taking back the stocks from the trade can also cause some major confusion as these products have been already sold by the manufacturers to the trade along with paying excise duty and other taxes industry.

The sources fear that during this period of withdrawing stock and relabeling there will be very little stocks of essential medicines in the trade channel. This could lead to a major scarcity of life saving drugs to patients who have to take them on a daily basis.

Expressing strong discontent over the issue Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association (IDMA) is planning to send a high level representation to the government demanding a urgent intervention on this issue.

Daara B Patel, secretary-general, IDMA pointed out that the association is actively pursuing this matter with the centre and have already expressed their strong disapproval over this draconian clause as it will jeopardise  access to essential medicines to the patients.

“What we demand is that the new policy should be in effect prospectively from the next batch rather than retrospectively. The government should understand that it is not feasible for manufacturers to retrieve all the stocks from the huge network of retailers and stockist from nook and corner of this country within the prescribed time period. Forcing this will only lead to sever shortage of essential drugs among the patients, and wide spread pandemonium among all,” Patel stressed.

It is understood that at present there is a lot of confusion and chaos among the industry over the time frame set by the government to clear old stocks and implement the new rates. They fear that if the situation persist it will be impossible for them to meet the deadline without affecting market accessibility of essential drugs, putting the patients at the raw end.

The new order is based on revised National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) of 348 drugs that will be subject to ceiling price based on simple average of all existing brands with over one per cent market share.