Supreme Court to hear case against
withdrawal of drug price cap
(The National Pharmaceutical…)
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a petition challenging a recent government circular that did away with price caps on at least 108 drugs crucial to treatment of diseases such as TB, cancer and diabetes.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had on September 22, 2014 withdrawn a May, 2013 circular that capped the prices of these non-essential drugs, in line with a directive from the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers.
In a public interest litigation, advocate Manohar Lal Sharma contended that the September 22 circular was against public interest as it would place drugs crucial to treating diabetes, blood pressure, cancer and rabies beyond the reach of common man.
He also demanded a CBI inquiry into what he claimed was the sudden turnaround in NPPA's action. A three-member bench, led by Chief Justice of India H L Dattu, on Thursday agreed to hear the PIL soon.
In May last year, the NPPA had issued a set of guidelines that empowered it to invoke its exceptional power under the Drug Price Control Order to cut prices of drugs in eight therapeutic categories if it found huge price differences between brands, and in July it invoked this power to cap prices of 108 drug formulations in therapeutic categories such as diabetes and cardiovascular drugs. Drug companies, both domestic and MNCs, challenged this in the High Courts of Delhi and Mumbai.
They objected to any government interference in prices of non-essential drugs. Following this, the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers had referred the issue to Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, who had dubbed the NPPA action as an "over-reach". The ministry had then advised the NPPA to withdraw its May, 2013 circular.
Sharma's PIL, filed in an urgent out-of-turn basis, claimed that there were around 4.1 crore diabetes patients, 5.7 crore coronary heart disease patients, 22 lakh TB patients, 11 lakh cancer patients, 25 lakh HIV/AIDS patients and 6 crore blood pressure patients in India. Any rise in prices of drugs for these diseases would pose a threat to their lives - a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution. He alleged that the NPPA's earlier order was withdrawn for "vested interests" to permit the industry to reap "windfall profits".
He claimed that prices of Glivec, an anti-cancer tablet, rose from Rs 8,500 to Rs 1.08 lakh, that of Plavix, a blood pressure/heart ailment drug, from Rs 147 to Rs 1,615 and antirabies drug Kamrab from Rs 2,670 to Rs 7,000.
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