MUMBAI: The watershed drug pricing policy that was to have kicked off on July 29 after a decade of intense debate and planning, is now threatened by a variety of reasons including court cases and bureaucratic lethargy. Confusion in the pharma industry persists along with a fear of shortage of essential drugs, with companies moving court to delay implementation of the new drug price control order (DPCO) and industry organizations seeking more time to comply.
The chaos has led to companies and trade channels being unclear about complying with the 45-day deadline of introducing new packs with the revised price. As a result, retail shelves will still have old stocks with no change in prices, while companies and trade grapple with the logistics involved in recalling and supplying medicines.
The 45-day deadline of the first list of 151-odd medicines, including anti-infectives, anti-diabetics and antibiotics whose prices were to be revised as part of the DPCO 2013, ended on Monday.
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