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Meera Mohanty

NPPA may be merged with proposed Central Drug Authority

New Delhi March 19 The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) will revise the prices of bulk drugs on Tuesday, incorporating customs duty reduction for bulk drugs from 12.5 per cent to 10 per cent introduced in the Union Budget.

Bulk drugs, drugs with some components that are imported, as well as formulations using the same will probably see a downward revision, but the effect will be only marginal, says an analyst.

The authority, responsible for monitoring and advising the Government on drug pricing matters, is expected to be ready to with new prices for bulk drugs soon. As per Drug Prices Control Order 1995, drug manufacturers using scheduled bulk drug formulation are required to apply for fixation of price of formulation within 30 days of bulk drug prices being fixed. Bulk drug prices are revised periodically or when policy changes require them to be revised.

The NPPA last week revised guidelines bringing down maximum annual price hike from 20 per cent to 10 per cent for non-scheduled drugs. The authority has also upwardly revised the rates of 118 drugs by 12.46 per cent during the current fiscal and scaled down rates of 298 medicines by an average 31.46 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha was today informed that the Government, in the long run, is looking at the idea of merging the NPPA with the proposed autonomous Central Drug Authority, to form an integrated regulatory authority called the National Authority on Drugs and Therapeutics.

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