Pfizer told to reduce prices of 2 drugs

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has clipped the profit margins of Pfizer's popular cough syrup Benadryl and skin-rash lotion Caladryl.

The prices of these medicines are not usually monitored by the NPPA as they are out of the list of medicines whose prices it fixes.

The authority invoked the public interest clause in the Drugs Price Control Order, 1995, to order a reduction in the prices after Pfizer was found to have increased the maximum retail prices of these products by over 20 per cent between November 2005 and November 2006.

The government has fixed the price of Benadryl at Rs 38.61, while Caladryl's MRP, inclusive of taxes, has been fixed at Rs 55.91. Pfizer officials refused comment on the impact of the decision and declined to provide the sales figures, citing Pfizer's policy of not disclosing the sales of individual products. Market sources put annual sales of Benadryl at around Rs 30 crore.

The decision is part of the NPPA's keenness to control medicine prices in the country. It recently started a countrywide exercise to check the claims of price reduction by pharmaceutical firms by buying samples in various parts of the country.

The authority has already collected samples from Delhi and nearby areas, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu. Eastern and western states are next in line. Official sources say the authority buys at least 200 samples from each centre every month.

"We have set up a cell to monitor the compliance of our drug price notifications. We select samples on the basis of feedback and compliants from individuals and state drug administrations. We have also started a system of reviewing trade journals to see the prices quoted by pharmaceutical firms," said an NPPA source.

The exercise is also aimed at confirming the price aberrations indicated in the monthly IMS-ORG data. IMS-ORG is a private agency that supplies monthly data on retail prices of medicines.

The authority's pro-active actions are known to be putting pressure on the industry to take its directives more seriously.