CCI to study unfair practices in Indian pharma, healthcare, releases RFP

NEW DELHI: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has released a request for proposals (RFP) from agencies to conduct a study on anti-competitive and unfair practices in Indian Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare sectors.

The justification of the study was given that fact that in the enforcement experience of the Commission, several anti-competitive practices in the Indian Pharmaceutical and Healthcare sector have come to the fore. In order to understand the nature and magnitude of such practices, the Commission has decided to conduct a Study on Pharmaceutical and Health Care Sector in Delhi & select districts of NCR.

The proposed Study would be a "Situation Analysis to understand the prescription and referral pattern of Hospitals and Medical Practitioners and also the tie-ups and networking amongst various stakeholders in Health Care Sector". The proposed Study is to be confined to allopathic health care only. The geographical scope of the proposed Study has been confined to Delhi and three districts of NCR namely Gurgaon, Faridabad and Noida.

The study will focus on the issues like exclusive tie-up through the formal or informal arrangement for referrals, exclusive arrangement for procurement of medicine, implants and other consumables, level of transparency that hospitals and general practitioners provide patients regarding treatment, the requirement of diagnostic tests and charges of ancillary services. It will also focus on the prescription patterns of branded and generic medicines, differentiation in pricing for patients from different categories like CGHS and the bundling of various products and services.

The Study would be a combination of both quantitative and qualitative dimensions. The qualitative dimensions will primarily aim at gathering deeper insights about the functioning and inter-dependence of various stakeholders of pharmaceutical and health care sector. For the quantitative aspect, structured questionnaires will be used for each stakeholder.

During the study, information will be gather from 155 hospitals, 162 standalone clinics, 705 doctors and general practitioners, 112 diagnostic centers, 390 pharmacists, 4,264 patients, 96 Medical Representatives, 48 pharmaceuticals companies, 10 medical implants/device companies, 17 insurance companies, 17 Third Party Administrators (TPAs), and 24 associations. The Overall Sample Size for all the 11 stakeholders of the Study works out to 5838.

The commission initially expects to engage an agency to conduct a pilot study on a smaller sample within four months of awarding the contract.

The study would help in eliminating the anti-competitive practices, protecting interests of patients and ensuring the freedom of trade in this industry.

Below is the attachment for the RFP