Pat came the reply, even before the question was posed. “It is up to the government to decide,” said a composed National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority (NPPA) chairman Bhupendra Singh. It was almost as if he knew what the question was. The chatter is constant, and speculation galore, that the power to regulate or cap drug…
What next for the NPPA?
Why India’s drug price regulator’s fate hangs in the balance
In the present go/no-go between the NPPA and Niti Aayog, whoever gets the power to control drug prices will have to do a tightrope walk between being pro-industry and pro-consumer
For over two decades, NPPA has regulated the prices of drugs in India
A new drug policy is in the works, a policy that would also cut some bureaucratic flab
If the NPPA is scrapped, it could come as a major relief to the industry
On the consumer side, much would change if the price control is delinked from the essential list
