Parliamentary Panel Raps DoP, NPPA for 5-Year Delay in Trade Margin Rationalisation Under DPCO
New Delhi: A parliamentary committee has expressed concern over the prolonged delay in formalizing a Trade Margin Rationalization (TMR) framework under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013, and recommended the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) and the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to expedite policy action to ensure affordable medicines for citizens.
The Committee noted that the TMR approach, capping trade margins to curb excessive pricing, was earlier implemented as a pilot for 42 high-price anti-cancer drugs and later for six COVID-related medical devices during the pandemic. These measures were taken by invoking extraordinary powers under Paragraph 19 of the DPCO, 2013, which allow such interventions only for a limited period.
In view of the pilot results and the feedback received, DoP and NPPA have conducted stakeholder consultations on incorporating an enabling provision within the DPCO that would allow the TMR framework to be applied more systematically. The feedback is currently under examination.
However, the Committee observed that the pilot interventions date back to the 2019–2020 pandemic period and that nearly five years have passed without a concrete policy decision. This, it said, has resulted in undue delays in operationalising TMR within DPCO, 2013.
The Committee stressed that timely action is crucial to prevent unjustified price escalation in essential medicines and ensure affordability for the general public.
“The Department of Pharmaceuticals, in consultation with NPPA, should come forward with a policy review at the earliest so that medicines are available to ordinary citizens at affordable prices,” the Committee recommended.
