The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) may involve more agencies to strengthen the collection of drug samples which is crucial in monitoring the prices of medicines, even as the proposal for setting up state-level cells is still stuck with the Planning Commission.

Currently, the NPPA depends fully on samples collected by a single agency – IMS Health- to monitor and fix the prices as the agency has not sufficient staff to gather samples from the market on its own. Moves are afoot to involve more private agencies to help the NPPA in the task, sources said.

“Availability of primary data base is crucial for the monitoring of the prices. This lack of independent official data has been adversely remarked in several court judgements under DPCO’95 from time to time. Even otherwise dependant on a private source and that too only one, is a cause of concern for a public/government body charged with the responsibility of fixing of prices for an entire industry,” sources said.

“NPPA with very limited staff available to it, monitors the prices of non scheduled formulations through various methods like scrutiny of price lists submitted by manufacturers, analysis of monthly 'Stockists Secondary Audit Reports' published by IMS-Health and complaints/references received from official and non- official sources,” sources said.

The DPCO provisions themselves have not helped in collection of data as companies do not give data as per prescribed forms on a voluntary basis. The NPPA feels that coercion cannot be the best option and instead, the NPPA should tie up with more agencies to help gather samples.

The NPPA is also reportedly consulting the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation to help it find out ways to widen and strengthen the sample collection drive.

The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has been pushing the proposal to set up NPPA cells in all the States in a bid to strengthen the agency for better price monitoring by collecting samples through own channels. However, the proposal is still stuck with the Planning Commission for approval and the DoP is waiting to see if it gets through at least during the current 12th Plan period.

The massive proportion of violations against the samples collected randomly is prompting the price monitoring agency to scout for more agencies. From 2007 to November 2010, as many as 2782 samples of non-scheduled drugs were collected and prima facie violations were detected in as many as 1495 cases. Out of these, 956 samples were referred for overcharging and then 539 cases were identified for price fixation.