The Planning Commission has recommended that National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority (NPPA) be placed under the Union ministry of health and family welfare.

A working committee under the Planning Commission to help prepare the plan for the next period has called for linking the National List of Essential Medicines to the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), apart from a number of policy and legal measures by the health ministry.

“All drug pricing related matters should be under one ministry and not be divided between the health ministry and the chemicals and fertilizers ministry. Particularly the health ministry should be the nodal ministry for NPPA. Review of the DPCO be taken up to determine which loopholes are used by companies to escape price control,” the panel said.

“Prescriptions must be made in INN name which could play a crucial role in removing incentives for doctors to prescribe the most expensive brands of generic drugs. The drug regulatory authority (CDCSO) should be linked to IP delays generic competition. Patent matters must continue to be firmly delinked from the drug licensing process for clinical research, manufacture and marketing approval,” the report said.

“Ministry of Health shall identify and issue compulsory licenses for patented expensive drugs required for public health programmes and take steps to make them affordable,” the report added.

If the recommendation of the Planning Commission is accepted, it can trigger a controversy since the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) was specially created under the chemicals ministry a couple of years back as the administrative department for the pharma sector. The Department which now controls the NPPA has been pushing the proposal to bring also the CDSCO under its control.