The government is going to dilute the powers of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the body that regulates drug prices, as the Draft Pharmaceutical Policy, 2017, which focuses heavily on prices of medicine, has proposed massive dilutions in the existing framework, which would give more control to the government over the operations of the NPPA.
The draft attempts to strip the NPPA of some powers, like once the price for a drug is fixed the pricing authority would not be allowed to revise them. The NPPA would also lose its power to cap the prices of in-patent medicines, and would be able to use its “emergency powers” only on the government’s orders.
It states that “this Policy would significantly contribute to the Ease of Doing Business in the pharmaceutical sector… The ‘Make-in-India’ programme would also get an impetus by the actions”. Further adding that “the regulator and the government would be two distinct agencies, the government shall not be the regulator and the regulator shall not be the government,” yet a government-appointed advisory body, with representation from the government, industry, as well as civil society, is being proposed.
The draft pharmaceutical policy, prepared by the department of pharmaceuticals under the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers, has proposed that an advisory body, members of which will include industry representatives nominated by the government, will assist the NPPA in fixing prices. The government will prepare the list of medicines for price regulation and transmit them to the NPPA for fixing the price ceilings.
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