Due to the national pharmaceutical pricing authority’s (NPPA) phase-wise notification of retail ceiling prices of essential medicines under the DPCO-2013, several of the leading pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in India have stopped supply of medicines to the stockists.

Whereas the distributors are also refusing to buy the scheduled formulations newly notified by the authority under the pretext of big reductions in prices, sources from the industry informed.

NPPA notified 151 formulations on June 14 and another 40 formulations on June 21 this year. The notification of the remaining list is awaited.

According to wholesalers in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the companies are engaged in printing stickers with revised prices. But the situation is likely to cause shortage of medicines in the market till the last batch of the controlled category comes out.

According to marketers in Chennai, major companies including Ranbaxy, Glaxo, Abbot, Nicholas Piramal, Alcon Laboratories, Elder Pharma and a host of other companies have stopped supply of drugs. One distributor from Kerala said Abbot has informed the stockists that it would settle the price differences arising out of the revised list with the distributors later and requested them not to discontinue the purchase on account of the new drug price order.

The general secretary of Tamil Nadu pharmaceutical distributors association (TNPDA), V P Elango, said some companies have reduced the quantity of their supplies.

Even though the companies are giving commitments to the marketers that they will take back the medicines pending with them after the revised list is in force, the stockists are not interested to purchase the products from the manufacturers.

A wholesaler from Kerala said although the manufacturing companies are pressing for a non-stop purchase deal, the stockists are afraid to buy more quantity because if they return the unsold products to the company, they have to wait for another two to three months to get their money (credit note) back from the manufacturers. Further, they have to pay money for the new medicines. This will cause a big financial burden to the dealers.

The Coimbatore district secretary of Tamil Nadu chemists and druggists association, Kovai Kasiraman said the batch wise release of price list and notification puts the chemists in trouble as there are over 800 formulations with 348 molecules and they are unable to  cope with it. He wanted the authorities to release the revised list of prices at one time rather than releasing it in a phased manner.