Top officials from the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) recently visited the Gujarat Food and Drug Control Authority (FDCA) to understand the techniques adopted by the state drug regulatory body in efficiently detecting the cases of DPCO violation. Gujarat remains in the forefront of reporting violations of the DPCO cases to NPPA.

The intention behind the visit by the two directors of NPPA Jagdish Kumar and A K Khurana was to study the modalities and possibly replicate the same process across the other states for effective reporting cases of  DPCO violation. During their meeting they interacted with senior FDCA officials and underwent an extensive study of their whole process.

Since 2009, the state drug regulators have successfully detected around 1071 cases of DPCO violation from around the state. In fact, in 2014 itself they referred 629 cases, while in 2015 till February they reported 22 cases from the state, which is a mammoth and difficult task in itself.

Dr Hemant Koshia, commissioner of Gujarat FDCA stressed that this is a huge achievement for the state drug regulators as it stands testament to their commitment to ensure best services to the patients across the state. He said, “We have been training our inspectors on a regular basis as an ongoing effort on all the basics of how to effectively calculate the prices of the medicines available in the market, compare and check it with the notified prices and how to efficiently and timely report or refer all the cases to the NPPA. All our efforts are targeted to ensure full compliance with the existing laws such as Drugs & Cosmetics Act, the DPCO and others.”

He further pointed out that the state even ranks first in the country to report the violation of cases under the new DPCO, wherein defaulters were found to be selling medicines at a price that is higher that that of the ceiling price fixed by the government. Following their visit to the FDCA’s office they also took a tour to some of the wholesalers and retails across to gauge and observe their work.

As on date, the NPPA has fixed and notified the ceiling prices with respect to 509 scheduled formulations, apart from notification of annual WPI-linked revision whenever due.