Lok Sabha Question No. 3512 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-10
Subject: Price Control of Drugs
Ministry: CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS
Asked by: Arun Sao, Vijay Baghel, Sunil Kumar Soni

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACEUTICALS

LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. †3512 TO BE ANSWERED ON 10 th  AUGUST, 2021

## Price Control of Drugs

## †3512.  SHRI ARUN SAO: SHRI VIJAY BAGHEL: SHRI SUNIL KUMAR SONI:

Will the Minister of CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS be pleased to state:

- (a) the details about the criteria/guidelines fixed by the Government/National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) for the pricing of essential medicines including the medicines used for the treatment of cancer, diabetes and HIV as well as heart and kidney diseases;
- (b) whether the price of essential medicines and other medicines has been decreased and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the steps taken by the Government to control/ reduce the price of medicines during each of the last three years and the current year and the extent to which success has been achieved so far; and
- (d) the details of total Jan Aushadhi Kendras set up so far including Chhattisgarh to provide inexpensive generic medicines through Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana, State-wise?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER IN THE MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS (SHRI MANSUKH MANDAVIYA)

(a) & (b): National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Policy (NPPP), 2012 prescribes the guidelines for regulation of prices of drugs. The key principles of price regulation are (i) essentiality of drugs (ii) control of prices of formulations and (iii) MarketBased Pricing. Based on NPPP, 2012 and subsequent  Drugs  (Prices  Control)  Order,  2013  (DPCO,  2013),  National  Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) under the Department of Pharmaceuticals fixes the ceiling price of scheduled drugs specified in the first schedule of the DPCO, 2013 and monitors the prices of non-scheduled drugs.

NPPA has fixed the ceiling prices of scheduled drugs, including the essential medicines used for treatment of cancer, diabetes and HIV as well as heart and kidney diseases. Further, NPPA has put a cap on Trade Margin of 42 select non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines under 'Trade  Margin  Rationalization  (TMR)'  Approach  resulting  in  reduction  up  to  90%  of Maximum Retail Price (MRP) of526 brands of these medicines.

NPPA has  also  brought  106  non-scheduled  anti-diabetic  and  cardio  vascular  drugs under  price  control  by  invoking  extra  ordinary  powers  in  public  interest.The  total  annual savings on account of revision of ceiling prices of medicines under National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), price control of anti-diabetic & cardiovascular, fixation of ceiling price of stents, knee implants and capping of TMR on anti-cancer are estimated to the tune of Rs. 12,500 crore.

- (c): NPPA monitors the ceiling price of the scheduled formulations to ensure that the MRP of such  formulations  are  within  the  range  of  ceiling  price  and  monitors  non-scheduled formulations to ensure that their MRP does not increase by more than 10% during the preceding twelve months. The details  of  retail/ceiling  prices  fixed/revised  by  NPPA  are  available  on NPPA's website www.nppaindia.nic.in.

The details of the formulations for which price have been fixed by NPPA in the last 3 years are as follows:

|   S. No | Type                                                              | 2018-19                | 2019-20   | 2020-21   | 2021-22 (till 31 st July 2021)   |
|---------|-------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------|-----------|-----------|----------------------------------|
|       1 | Ceiling Price                                                     | 5                      | 7         | 12        | 1                                |
|       2 | Retail Price                                                      | 329                    | 256       | 321       | 84                               |
|       3 | Ceiling price for Pharmaceutical Purchase Policy (Recommendation) | -                      | 105       | 57        | -                                |
|       4 | TMR                                                               | 42 (Anti Cancer drugs) | -         | -         | 6 (Medical Devices)              |

- (d):  Under  the  Pradhan  Mantri  Bhartiya  Janaushadhi  Pariyojana  (PMBJP),  till  04.08.2021, about  8,004  Pradhan  Mantri  Bhartiya  Janaushadhi  Kendras  (PMBJKs)  are  open  across  the country to provide generic medicines at cheaper rates to the citizens. Till 04.08.2021, about 236 PMBJKs are open in the State of Chhattisgarh.  State/UT wise list of PMBJKs is enclosed as Annexure .

## Annexure

| State/UT wise list of PMBJK's functioning   | State/UT wise list of PMBJK's functioning   | across the country as on 04.08.2021   |
|---------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------|
| Sl. No.                                     | Name of the State/UT                        | No. of PMBJK functional               |
| 1                                           | Andaman & Nicobar                           | 2                                     |
| 2                                           | Andhra Pradesh                              | 180                                   |
| 3                                           | Arunachal Pradesh                           | 28                                    |
| 4                                           | Assam                                       | 83                                    |
| 5                                           | Bihar                                       | 244                                   |
| 6                                           | Chandigarh                                  | 7                                     |
| 7                                           | Chhattisgarh                                | 236                                   |
| 8                                           | Delhi                                       | 333                                   |
| 9                                           | Goa                                         | 9                                     |
| 10                                          | Gujarat                                     | 533                                   |
| 11                                          | Haryana                                     | 215                                   |
| 12                                          | Himachal Pradesh                            | 61                                    |
| 13                                          | Jammu And Kashmir                           | 100                                   |
| 14                                          | Jharkhand                                   | 73                                    |
| 15                                          | Karnataka                                   | 916                                   |
| 16                                          | Kerala                                      | 825                                   |
| 17                                          | Ladakh                                      | 3                                     |
| 18                                          | Lakshadeep *                                | 0                                     |
| 19                                          | Madhya Pradesh                              | 223                                   |
| 20                                          | Maharashtra                                 | 592                                   |
| 21                                          | Manipur                                     | 32                                    |
| 22                                          | Meghalaya                                   | 14                                    |
| 23                                          | Mizoram                                     | 22                                    |
| 24                                          | Nagaland                                    | 16                                    |
| 25                                          | Odisha                                      | 302                                   |
| 26                                          | Puducherry                                  | 16                                    |
| 27                                          | Punjab                                      | 285                                   |
| 28                                          | Rajasthan                                   | 125                                   |
| 29                                          | Sikkim                                      | 3                                     |
| 30                                          | Tamil Nadu                                  | 822                                   |
| 31                                          | Telangana                                   | 153                                   |
| 32                                          | DNH & D&D                                   | 35                                    |
| 33                                          | Tripura                                     | 24                                    |
| 34                                          | Uttar Pradesh                               | 1114                                  |
| 35                                          | Uttarakhand                                 | 205                                   |
| 36                                          | West Bengal                                 | 173                                   |
| Grand Total 8004                            | Grand Total 8004                            | Grand Total 8004                      |

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