Saturday, 27 January 2018

Gujarat FDCA awaits clearance from health ministry for funds to set up drug price ceiling violation cell

Based on the MoU with the Union health ministry, Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) is awaiting clearance from the ministry for setting up drug price ceiling violation cell in the state. Following clearance from the ministry, the state government will get requisite sanctions for funds as per National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) guidelines. 

Gujarat government has also formed a committee to oversee recruitment of manpower for the drug price ceiling violation cell for effective oversight of drug ceiling price violations in the state. 

A total of seven personnel including a scientific officer will be deputed for the purpose of collection of data on price violations in the state based on the much awaited financial support from the Central Government.

“Following the clearance, creation of a drug price ceiling violation cell in the state will involve sanctions from the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) and registration of society as per the Registrar of Society rules for executing financial modalities in a proper manner,” informed Dr H G Koshia, Gujarat FDCA Commissioner.

DoP held a meeting with all the state drug controllers in 2015 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 drug price ceiling violation cells in case they find any contravention to the provisions of Drug Price Control Order (DPCO).

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. 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.

Government has also 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, Himachal Pradesh, etc fall under the category A states.