'Scheduled medicine sale above notified price not authorised'

Government today said no one is authorised to sell any scheduled medicine to a consumer at a price exceeding the one notified by the drug price regulator NPPA under DPCO, 2013.

As per the provisions of Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO, 2013) the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority fixed the ceiling prices of essential medicines contained in Schedule-I.

To ensure that these medicines are available at reasonable price, "no person is authorised to sell any scheduled formulation (medicine) to a consumer at a price exceeding the price notified by the NPPA under DPCO, 2013," Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar said in a statement.
 

While fixing the ceiling price, 16 per cent margin is allowed to the retailers. For non-scheduled formulations there is no control over the launch price.

In respect of medicines not under price control, manufacturers are allowed to increase maximum retail price (MRP) by 10 per cent annually, the statement added.

It also said there is no specific mechanism available in the DPCO, 2013 to check the difference between the actual cost of production and the retail price of medicines.