Indian NPPA asked to consider practical solution to drug re-labelling

Published: 18-Aug-2014

Task too onerous argue Indian pharmaceutical companies


The Delhi High Court in India has directed the National Pharma Pricing Authority (NPPA) to consider a 'practical solution' offered by a group of pharma companies to re-labelling of drugs that are already in the market with new price tags.

Earlier this year, drug majors such as Cipla, Sun Pharma, Wockhardt, Lupin, and Alembic among others, submitted a proposal to the High Court on the subject. They argued that relabelling existing drug stocks with new prices notified by the NPPA under the new Drug Price Control Order was not required, as the distributors have been asked from time to time to comply with the NPPA’s revised price lists.

According to the drug companies, the NPPA itself, in documents filed before the court, had said that there was no 'mandatory' requirement to relabel new revised prices on products that have been manufactured prior to the date on which the respective notification came into effect. The NPPA disagreed and insisted that the drug packs already on pharmacy shelves needed to be taken back and relabelled with the new prices.

Lawyers on behalf of the pharma companies said the process of relabelling existing drugs stocks in the market was too onerous.

The court suggested that a notice could be put up at all tills in pharmacies, informing customers about available medicines at subsidised rates, if the rates have been changed by the NPPA.

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