Cipla gets interim relief on 45-day deadline

(27/7/13)

Mumbai, 26 July 2013: In the nick of time, drug-maker Cipla has got some interim relief from the Delhi High Court, on the Governments 45-day deadline to sport revised prices on medicines. The Court has asked Cipla to publish its new price list. However, it said no coercive steps would be taken against the company on batches manufactured and cleared before the Government notified its revised price list, according to a person familiar with the development. Cipla counsel Pratibha Singh confirmed that the Court had given Cipla some interim protection. Final details of the directive, though, are still awaited. In the interim period, Cipla would also not have to put stickers on its products with the revised prices, as indicated by the Government during the hearing, another person close to the development said. Drug companies were required to sell their products with the revised prices 45 days from the date when the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had notified the revised list. Cipla had approached the Court, saying that while it was possible for all stocks manufactured after the date of notification to bear the revised prices, it was difficult to recall stocks already supplied to the market with taxes paid. As part of the Governments new drug policy, all 348 drugs in the National List of Essential Medicines were brought under the ambit of price control. And the formula to fix the ceiling price was calculated through a simple average of all drugs in a particular formulation with a market share of one per cent. In a separate case in Gujarat, involving the Drug Price Control Order 2013, drug-maker Alembic has questioned the interpretation of this formula. Companies believe that all brands with an independent market share of one per cent or more need to be calculated. But the NPPA has been taking into account multiple brands in a single formulation from a company to arrive at the one per cent cut-off.

The Hindu Business Line