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It's been four months since the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) rolled out its “Pharma Sahi Daam’ mobile app.
Having got around its initial teething problems, the app will soon be accessible to iPhone users as well.
There have been 30,000 downloads since the app was launched in late August and the iOS version will be available by January 15, NPPA Chairman Bhupendra Singh told BusinessLine .
Customers can check medicine prices to see if it is on the Government's list of price controlled drugs or not, get the generic or chemical names of the different medicines and even compare brands and prices before buying, Singh explained.
The experience over the last few months has been that customers have come back to the authorities with feedback and complaints on the prices, he added.
Empowering customers Instead of just authorities being tasked with monitoring medicine prices, the mobile phone app empowers customers to keep a check on prices, he said, keeping retailers and companies also on their toes.
The NPPA fixes and monitors medicine prices as outlined by the Drugs (Prices Control) Order (DPCO). Presently, all medicines on the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) are under price control.
In the past, the Government had attracted criticism on its over reliance for medicine price-related data from private data agencies.
But that too has been addressed, Singh said through the IPDMS (Integrated Pharmaceutical Database Management System).
About 70 per cent of the manufacturers have submitted their data, he said, adding that the rest would follow suit.
Online initiatives The NPPA's online initiative comes even as the Centre pushes for online transactions across different sectors and services, the most recent and high-profile one being the campaign to go cashless following the demonitisation drive.
On the healthcare front, the NPPA's online effort comes even as greater clarity is awaited on e-pharmacies, where medicines are ordered and sold online or through mobile apps.
This, however, has been a contentious debate with chemists and retailers raising red-flags on the sale and possible abuse of sensitive prescription drugs.
The NPPA starts this year with stakeholder meetings this week on controlling the price of cardiac stents (used in heart procedures).
Stents are the first significant medical devices to come under price control.
Even as the NPPA's own role attracts much discussion, its efforts over the last two-and-half years, have resulted in almost 900 drug formulations being brought under price control, a saving of about ₹5,000 crore to the consumers, Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ananth Kumar had said last year, while launching the app on NPPA's foundation day.
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