Call for Indian govt to bring more essential drugs under price control from NGOs

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in India have jointly issued a letter calling on the country’s government to expand the scope of price control by bringing other essential and life saving medicines under price regulation in order to protect patients from overcharging and to promote public health.

India’s National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority (NPPA), on July 10 released a new set of price notifications for 50 cardiovascular and diabetes medicines under paragraph 19 of the Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO), 2013. The notifications for the 108 formulations (two were subsequently withdrawn) of these selected medicines are in addition to the notifications for essential medicines declared under the DPCO 2013. We note that the earlier notifications for essential medicines excluded several dosage forms and strengths because they did not feature in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), 2011. Thus the recent notifications were necessary to cover more of the strengths of medicines than that are listed on the NLEM. In addition, the notifications also covered medicines in the cardiovascular and diabetes therapeutic categories that are not included in the NLEM.

In the joint letter to Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Shri Ananth Kumar, the NGOs state: “We the undersigned civil society organizations welcome the initiative of the NPPA to cap the prices of formulations involving essential and lifesaving medicines that fall outside the NLEM as a first step towards the institution of a robust, pro-public health policy of drug price control. This is an action that truly interprets the spirit of the Drug Prices Control Order, and its underlying legislation the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. In the past, despite its attention being drawn to the profiteering in medicines not listed in the DPCO, the government had looked the other way.”