MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF STATISTICS &
PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF
CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS (SHRI SRIKANT KUMAR JENA)
(a) & (b) : As per IMS Health monthly SSA report for the month of October,
2011, the increase/ decrease in respect of prices of 61109 formulation packs
are as follows:
Price changes No. of medicines % of total
during the month (packs)
A. Price Declines 74 0.12%
B. Price Increases 115 0.19%
(a) Upto 5% 50 0.08%
(b) Above 5% and upto 10% 41 0.07%
(c) Above 10% and upto 20% 14 0.02%
(d) Above 20% 10 0.02%
C. No. change in Price 60920 99.69%
Total 61109 100.00%
The details of percentage number of packs, whose prices have increased,
decreased and remained stable on the monthly basis in percentage terms
as per Retail Audit Reports of IMS Health from 2003-04 till date are
as follows given annexure.
It may be observed that the increase in prices of drugs & medicines
has been generally lower than that for All Commodities during the
years 2006-07 to 2011-2012.
Under the provisions of the Drugs (Prices & Control) Order, 1995
(DPCO,95) the prices of 74 bulk drugs and the formulations containing
any of these scheduled drugs are controlled. NPPA / Govt. fixes or
revises prices of scheduled drugs / formulations as per the provisions
of the DPCO,95. No one can sell any scheduled drug / formulation at
a price higher than the price fixed by NPPA / Govt.
In respect of drugs - not covered under the Drugs (Prices Control)
Order, 1995 i.e. non-scheduled drugs, manufacturers fix the prices by
themselves without seeking the approval of Government / NPPA. However,
as a part of price monitoring activity, NPPA regularly examines the
movement in prices of non-scheduled formulations. The monthly reports
of ORG IMS and the information furnished by individual manufacturers
are utilized for the purpose of monitoring prices of non-scheduled
formulations. Wherever a price increase beyond 10% per annum is noticed,
the manufacturer is asked to bring down the price voluntarily failing
which, subject to prescribed conditions, action is initiated under
paragraph 10(b) of the DPCO, 1995 for fixing the price of the
formulation in public interest. This is an ongoing process.
Based on monitoring of prices of non-scheduled formulation, NPPA
has fixed prices in case of 30 formulation packs under para 10(b) and
companies have reduced price voluntarily in case of 65 formulation packs.
Thus in a!!, prices of 95 packs of non-scheduled drugs have got reduced
as a result of the intervention of NPPA.
