"NPPA an independent body authorized to fix drug prices"

While the government's decision is being hailed by patients, the companies are not happy about decreased profit margins

National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) is an independent body of experts which has been delegated with the powers under DPCO, 2013 to fix the ceiling price or retail price of any drug. This was stated in reply to a question in the parliament recently by the minister for chemicals and fertilizers, Mr Ananth Kumar. He remarked that NPPA has fixed the prices of anti-diabetic and cardiovascular drugs with respect to 108 non-scheduled formulations.

The minister said that all the medicines specified in the National List of Essential Medicines, 2011 (NLEM, 2011) have been included in Schedule 1 of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013 (DPCO, 2013) which contains 348 drugs covering 680 formulations.