The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) recently informed that it has initiated 2116 cases of overcharging against pharma companies.

Presently, 881 overcharging cases involving a total amount of Rs 8184.19 crore under the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO) 1979, 1987, 1995 and 2013 are pending. 324 cases, worth Rs 6550.37 crores, are under litigation in various courts.

The authority recently updated the case-wise detailed list along with the amount involved on its website.

D V Sadananda Gowda, Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, informed this while responding to queries raised by Poonam Mahajan and Ramya Haridas in the Loksabha.

The Minister also informed that action for the recovery of the overcharged amount is on-going process as per the provisions of DPCO. In cases where demands raised for overcharging have been challenged in the court, the NPPA pursues these cases in the court. In case, the demand raised by the NPPA has not been challenged in the court and the concerned company has not deposited the amount, the matter is referred to the respective Collectors/ District Magistrate for the recovery of the overcharged amount as arrears of land revenue under provisions of Essential Commodities Act 1955.

According to an industry observer, “NPPA has been always transparent in its operations for making the essential medicines available to the needy patients in the country. And they do proper calculation and analysis before issuing a notice to a pharma company for overcharging the consumer in sale of medicines.”