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Maha FDA awaits funds to establish NPPA cell to monitor ceiling price violation
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Shardul Nautiyal, Mumbai
September 20 , 2017
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Based on the drug pricing regulator National Pharmaceutical Pricing
Authority (NPPA)'s proposed plan to set up a dedicated ceiling price
violation cell at Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) office
last year, the latter is awaiting the funds for the same to kickstart
the operations.
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.
For
this, state government will have to provide space for setting up the
office within the state drug regulatory office, as per the plan and the
expenditure related to manpower, amenities and other infrastructural
cost will be borne by the Centre.
As per the provisions of the
law, NPPA will give us certain monetary benefits to set up the cell and
is still in the process of allocating a budget on the same, said a
senior FDA official.
According to the plan, 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.
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.
In
order to effectively detect drug ceiling price violations, Maharashtra
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be providing an office space for
the monitoring cell as planned by the drug regulator. NPPA had
discussed and proposed the plan with the state drug regulator to set up a
dedicated administrative cell within its office last year.
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.
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