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Maha FDA to have an NPPA cell to detect ceiling price violation soon
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Shardul Nautiyal, Mumbai
August 29 , 2017
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In order to effectively detect drug ceiling price violations,
Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be providing an
office space for a monitoring cell planned by the National
Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) in the state.
NPPA had
discussed and proposed the plan with the state drug regulator to set up a
dedicated administrative cell within its office last year. While the
expenditure related to manpower, amenities and other infrastructural
cost will be borne by the Centre, state government will have to provide
the space for setting up the office within the state drug regulatory
office, as per the plan.
As per the provisions of the law, NPPA
will give us certain monetary benefits to set up the cell and is in the
process of allocating a budget on the same, said a senior FDA official.
Government
has earmarked an amount of Rs. 67 lakh for all category A states in the
country of which Rs. 7 lakh has been earmarked for infrastructure and
equipment, Rs. 19 lakh for manpower, Rs. 24 lakh for training, Rs. 12
lakh for data collection and sampling and Rs. 5 lakh as contingency
fund.
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Himanchal Pradesh etc fall under the category of A states.
NPPA
held a meeting with all the state drug controllers last year in Delhi
to set up price monitoring cells in all the states across the country.
With the implementation of the plan, violations reported will be dealt
timely with the help of the state NPPA cells in case they find any
contravention to the provisions of Drug Price Control Order (DPCO-2013).
Through
the price monitoring cells, NPPA will closely work with the state drug
regulators to find out any discrepancies that affect the consumers. The
officials heading the cell will report their findings to the NPPA
directly in case they find any pharma company violating the law by
selling the drugs above the ceiling price.
Under the proposed
scheme, the cell is to be headed by one person along with a team of NPPA
officials whose strength will vary as per the size of the pharma
industry in the respective states. NPPA has categorised the states based
on three categories, i.e. based on maximum, minimum and least number of
pharma cos in the state for better division of work.
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