Based on Hospital data, NPPA fixed price of Calcium Carbonate tab, 4 other formulations

New Delhi: Based on Institutional Data received from Hospitals, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has fixed Ceiling Price of Calcium Carbonate 500mg Tablets under para 19 of DPCO, 2013 along with 4 other formulations.

Besides fixing the price, NPPA in its recent most meeting further ordered that action may be taken against Max hospital, Gurugram for sale of Calcium Carbonate 500 mg tablet for violations of the provisions of DPCO 2013.

The Authority in its meeting noted that to fix the ceiling price of the scheduled formulations based on the communication of Department of Pharmaceuticals (DOP) dated 05.02.2019, in cases where no market data is available, NPPA had taken extra efforts to collect the institutional data. Letters were issued to Director General Health Services (DGHS), Central drug procurement agencies; state drug procurement agencies, state drug controller (SDC), Central/State Government Hospitals and private Hospitals, etc in order to obtain the data from the required Institutions.

The services of Standing National Committee on Medicines (SNCM) were also obtained in collecting the requisite data. Despite such elaborate efforts, data could not be collected in respect of some of the scheduled formulations as stipulated. However, NPPA had, on own initiative, put the data in public domain to invite concerns, if any.

The Authority further noted the representations received from representation from Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), New Delhi and Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), Mumbai for providing 24% margin on the draft calculation uploaded in NPPA's website based on its earlier decision in the meeting dated 20.01.2020. In this connection, the Authority took cognizance of the fact that NPPA had earlier fixed the ceiling price of certain scheduled formulations based on institutional data by giving nil margin for which representations were received from the state agencies of Karnataka, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Assam and Bihar. The agencies stated that they were not able to procure citing the inability to supply within the ceiling price notified by NPPA. The Hon'ble High Court of Madhya Pradesh had also passed an order in this regard. Accordingly, the Authority agreed to allow 24% margin on average procurement price at an institutional level.