New Delhi, India,
Date : 17.9.2004

MESSAGE FROM CHAIRMAN

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) is now a little over 7 years old. During this period it has strived to ensure that commonly used drugs are available at reasonable prices. So far the NPPA has fixed (or revised ) prices of 181 bulk drugs and 2568 formulations. In 2003-04 alone, prices of 78 bulk drugs and 506 formulations were fixed / revised. To make our procedures transparent we have notified norms for packing material costs, conversion costs, packing charges and process losses for fixing prices of medicines.

A special Monitoring and Enforcement cell has been set up recently for both scheduled and non – scheduled formulations. Complaints have been received from different quarters about excessive margins of profit offered by certain manufacturers to chemists for promoting sales of some non-scheduled formulations. This is a matter of concern for all concerned and has also been brought to the notice of Government.

The NPPA web site gives periodically updated prices fixed for scheduled drugs and formulations. I am happy to note the excellent response by the ever increasing number of visitors to the NPPA web site. The Authority is constantly striving to make its procedures more transparent and user friendly. We solicit the cooperation of all concerned.

(Vinay Bansal)
Chairman