The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) is still scouting for the partners to roll out the ambitious project of SMS-based helpline through which the consumers will be able to choose the cheapest brand of a drug prescribed by doctors.

The agency, which started looking for the agencies and companies to run the helpline by publishing a tender on December 8, 2012, seems to have failed to evoke good response from the companies after the expiry of 45 days given in the tender. The NPPA has now once again come out with a fresh tender to invite companies to partner with it.

The NPPA will now hold a meeting of the prospective bidders in the first week of June and then issue the modified terms of reference for the contract that will be for three years initially.  The service will enable the consumers to know the latest market prices of generic/branded medicines through SMS.

“There are number of drugs available in the market with same medicament composition with wide variation in their prices.  The prescription of doctors also varies from low price to high priced drugs for the same ailment. Government of India intends to launch an SMS based patient awareness scheme which would enable the patients to know the cheaper alternatives medicines available,” according to the notice by the NPPA.

The objective is to operate an all India based 24-hour SMS helpline for general public awareness to provide information about the cheaper alternatives of minimum two allopathic medicines with generic and brand name within 160 characters which are available and sold in the market in various parts of the country.  It should include all scheduled/NLEM/Jan Aushadhi drugs, the agency said.

The company will track and update the latest market price on monthly basis of all generic and branded medicines including all scheduled/NLEM/Jan Aushadhi medicines available and sold in various parts of the country. Inclusion and exclusion of medicine(s) from the data base shall be informed to NPPA every month. The operator will impart the most relevant SMS reply considering the latest updated MRP of medicines in the order of the price from lower to higher.

“If the query is for the price of specific brand, the SMS reply be for the latest MRP of the said brand and also for minimum 2 cheapest brands/medicines within 160 characters.  In case the query is for alternative without specifying any brand name, the information will be provided for cheapest alternative medicines.  If the query is received for the alternative in generic name, a reply on the latest market price of medicines available in different brand name based on the same drug is replied including Jan Aushadhi price wherever available,” the document said.

On implementation of SMS based information system, substitution of drugs/medicines is likely to take place and the question of shifting the responsibility of right medicines would be emerged.  In order to tackle such a situation, the following disclaimer shall be placed on top of the message while delivering every SMS based information – “Consult doctor before buying medicine”