Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given its consent to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to set up a price monitoring cell in the state for effective detection of drug price violations.

NPPA had discussed and proposed the plan with the state drug regulator to set up a dedicated administrative cell within its office last year. While the expenditure related to manpower, amenities and other infrastructural cost will be borne by the Centre, state government will have to provide the space for setting up the office within the state drug regulatory office, as per the plan.

As per the provisions of the law, NPPA will give us certain monetary benefits to set up the cell and is in the process of allocating a budget on the same, said a senior FDA official.

According to Maharashtra FDA Commissioner Dr Harshadeep Kamble, "Based on our consent on the same, we are awaiting a positive response from the NPPA. The NPPA cell at state headquarters will ensure that violations on drug pricing are reported and addressed on time”.

NPPA held a meeting with all the state drug controllers last year 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).

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.

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. NPPA has categorised the states based on three categories, i.e. based on maximum, minimum and least number of pharma cos in the state for better division of work.