India's NPPA takes action against drug companies over violations of DPCO 2013

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) in India has taken action against major drug firms for not registering their products on the online database Integrated Pharmaceutical Database Management System (IPDMS) and their inability to file mandatory returns through it, according to a posting on Brand India Pharma’s website.

All pharma firms were required to register themselves on the IPDMS in September 2014, with the last date being extended to allow firms to provide the required information. The authority during the period March-June 2016 had issued many price notifications, but several pharma companies had not submitted the required forms. The willful violation of the Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO) 2013 by pharma companies have not been taken in good light by the authority.

The industry associations have also been asked to sensitize their members on the compliance of the order urgently. The IPDMS after being completely operational will be a useful database for collection, monitoring, analysis of data and information and would be greatly helpful to the consumer, industry and regulator.