NPPA seeks public help on overpricing

The NPPA has put out a list of 312 medicines that it found to be overpriced. In all these cases, the manufacturers had failed to respond to NPPA queries relating to actual prices and production details of these medicines for over six months. Official sources said they expect public response to help them gather more details about the pricing pattern of these medicines.

Drug majors like Aurobindo, Alkem, Emcure are all among the list of companies that failed to respond to NPPA's queries and subsequent reminders.

While Aurobindo failed to provide details about its ampicillin and cloxacillin tablets, Cadila Healthcare did not respond to NPPA queries on nine medicines. The authority wanted details of doxycycline and norbactin tablets from Ranbaxy.

The NPPA has until now come across over 1,000 cases of suspected overcharging by drug companies. Some of these cases were settled after companies provided satisfactory replies to our queries. Some (about 75) are under litigation.

"The 312 medicines that we have listed now are the ones on which we could not initiate any action due to lack of credible data. The companies have also failed to respond. We expect to calculate the exact size of overcharged amount in each of these cases through public support," a senior NPPA official said.