Following National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) proposed plan to set up a ceiling price violation cell at Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in Mumbai, the state drug regulator after giving its due consent is now waiting for funds for the same from the Centre.

While the expenditure related to manpower, amenities and other infrastructural cost will be borne by the NPPA, Maharashtra FDA will be providing an office space for monitoring the cell, as per the proposed plan.

NPPA held a meeting with all the state drug controllers in 2016 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).

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.

Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and, Himachal Pradesh fall under the category A states with reference to the allocation of budget for the same. NPPA has categorised states based on three categories, i.e. based on maximum, minimum and least number of pharma companies for rationalising division of work.

Government has earmarked an amount of Rs.67 lakh for all category A states in the country of which Rs.7 lakh has been earmarked for infrastructure and equipment, Rs.19 lakh for manpower, Rs.24 lakh for training, Rs.12 lakh for data collection and sampling and Rs.5 lakh as contingency fund.

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.