HC asks Centre not to take coercive steps against Cipla

The Delhi High Court today asked the Centre not to take coercive steps against pharma major Cipla Ltd which has challenged a government order asking it to reduce prices of its 125 drugs within 45 days of issuance of the notification.
A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice B D Ahmed asked the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) and Drug Controller General not to take any punitive measures against the pharma company as the date of implementation of the 2013 Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) is ending on July 29.
The court, meanwhile, asked the firm to supply the revised price list of regulated medicines to its distributors, suppliers and retailers.

The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, on May 15, through NPPA issued a notification to implement the DPCO asking pharma companies to reduce prices of 348 medicines.
The DPCO also asked them to replace stocks in the market with those carrying reduced maximum retail price within 45 days of the new price notification by the NPPA.
Cipla, in its plea filed through Pratibha M Singh, has sought quashing of certain provisions of the DPCO saying they are "ultra vires and unconstitutional."

"It is submitted that by the impugned clauses, all manufacturers have been called upon to ensure that even those scheduled formulations which have already been sold and/or manufactured and are now available for sale in the domestic market have to be sold at a price not exceeding the sealing (plus local taxes as applicable).

"Further, the impugned clauses also stipulate that the aforesaid needs to be done within 45 days from the date of notification of the ceiling price by the government," it said.
The pharma company said earlier DPCOs used to give sufficient time for compliance of the revised prices.
The provision in DPCO that requires companies to pull out existing stocks within 45 days is unreasonable, it said.
The lawyer urged that the company be allowed to sell on old rate the existing stocks that have been manufactured and already been supplied in the market and the new rates can be made applicable on new lots to be supplied by firms.