The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has issued the draft Central sector scheme of assistance for setting up price monitoring and resource units (PMRUs) in the states and Union Territories.

The Central sector scheme of assistance for setting up PMRUs at the states/UTs would provide all necessary support to the State Drug Controllers and NPPA. Each Unit will function under the direct supervision of the concerned State Drug Controller. PMRUs will be key collaborating partners of NPPA with information gathering mechanism at the grassroots level. PMRUs will also ensure that the benefits of the DPCO (revised from time to time) trickles down at the grassroots level.The Central funding will be for an initial period of five years subject to a mid-term review after 12th Plan period.

The objectives of setting up the PMRUs are to provide necessary technical assistance to the State Drug Controllers and NPPA for monitoring the notified prices of medicines, detection of violation of the provisions of DPCO (revised from time to time), pricing compliance and ensuring availability of medicines; and monitoring the price movement of scheduled and non-scheduled formulations based on periodical returns filed by the industry, revision of price of scheduled formulations by the manufacturer based on the annual increase in Wholesale Price Index (WPI) as per provisions contained in the DPCO, oversee the price of non-scheduled formulations so that the prices of such formulations are not increased beyond 10 per cent annually.

The PMRUs are also aimed for collection and compilation of market based data of scheduled as well as non-scheduled formulations and analyse them; collect test samples of medicines at the retailed market whenever required; conduct training, seminars and workshops at the State and District levels for consumer awareness and publicity covering aspects relating to the role and functions of NPPA, availability of scheduled and non-scheduled medicines at reasonable prices and care to be taken while purchasing the medicines from the chemists/ retailers and availability of alternative cheaper medicines. The resource persons for the training will be provided by the State Drug Controller and by the NPPA, whenever required; and any other related works as assigned to them by the NPPA from time to time.