NPPA Caps Prices of another Eighteen Formulations

The Pharmaceutical pricing agency of India, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has capped the prices of a further 18 products, which includes drugs sold by Cipla and Merck. Drugs to deal with diabetes, hypertension and pneumonia are impacted by the extension of the price-capping policy.

NPPA has included more drugs packs to the list of price-capped drugs on various occasions since the original catalog was presented in May 2014. The number of drugs packs on the list has now surpassed 700, The Economic Times reports, up from 652 when the policy initially came into force. NPPA has extended the price cap system in an effort to give customers access to a range of cost-effective therapy options, while some industry professionals question whether the approch achieves this goal.

Authorities at NPPA are dedicated to the policy, though, and are interested in implementing it more extensively. However, initiatives to increase the program are being restricted by insufficient information. NPPA requested state governments and drug controllers, national-level authorities, IMS Health, trade groups and others for pricing data on 98 drugs in July but is yet to get the information. The price-capping body had set a 30-day due date for the provision of the data.

Having been unsuccessful to collect the data, NPPA is not able to fix the costs of the drugs. The products impacted by the pricing issue include therapies for anemia, cardiovascular conditions, malaria and tuberculosis. It is not clear what, if anything, NPPA can do to handle the scenario.