Indian NPPA seeks to free OTC drug prices

India's National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has told thegovernment that its new drug policy should exempt over-the-counter products from price control.

Currently, the prices of 74 bulk drugs and their formulations are fixed by the NPPA and revised periodically under the Drug Price Control Order of 1995. Drug firms say the DPCO offers insufficient margins to encourage R&D and attract fresh foreign investment into India, but the government maintains that price controls are a way of making essential drugs available to the poor.

Local reports say the NPPA is concerned that the price control basket will include only 10% of the 279 drugs categorized as essential by the Health Ministry. In a letter to the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, the Authority says the new policy should allow only 5% additional costs over and above the factory cost, against 8% as recommended in the draft policy.