Minister of State for Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Chemicals & Fertilizers, Shri Mansukh L. Mandaviya, while giving a written reply to a question on benefits accrued to citizens due to reduction in the prices of essential medicines in recent past, in Lok Sabha today, said that fixation of ceiling prices/MRP of medicines has resulted in a total saving of Rs. 11,463 crores to the public after implementation of DPCO, 2013. This includes the saving of Rs. 4,547 crores on account fixation of ceiling price of coronary stents (including re-fixation) and Rs. 1,500 crores on account of price fixation of Knee implants.
Shri Mandaviya informed that the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), as an ongoing process, fixes the ceiling prices of the formulations as and when formulations are included in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM). NPPA fixes the ceiling prices of medicines listed in the Schedule - I of Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013 (DPCO, 2013). Till June 2018, the Government has fixed the ceiling prices of 851 medicines (including 4 medical devices i.e. Cardiac stents, drug eluting stents, condoms and intra uterine devices) under Revised Schedule - I based on National List of Essential Medicines, 2015 (NLEM, 2015).
The Minister further informed thatNPPA is effectively monitoring the prices of scheduled as well as non-scheduled medicines under DPCO, 2013 so that these formulations are available to public at ceiling prices notified and no manufacturer of non-scheduled formulations can increase more than 10% in price as per provisions of DPCO, 2013. It takes action against companies found overcharging the consumers based on the references received from the State Drugs Controllers / individuals, samples purchased from the open market, reports from market based data and complaints reported through the grievance redressal websites; ‘Pharma Jan Samadhan’ and ‘Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS)’