Parliamentary panel flags gaps in drug price control, cites huge retail margins
New Delhi: A Parliamentary Standing Committee said gaps in drug price control had allowed retailers to earn excessive margins, in some cases between 600% and 1,100%, and urged stronger regulation to protect patients.
The committee reviewed rising prices in the pharmaceutical sector and said there was little effective oversight from basic tablets to high-cost medicines. It noted that families spent modest sums on minor ailments but faced severe financial strain for chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, and even higher costs for cancer and cardiac treatments.
The panel said medicines with the same formula carried sharply different maximum retail prices across brands. It expressed concern that the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), tasked with enforcing drug price control, had not clearly explained the reasons for such variations or outlined effective steps to curb them.
Drug price control gaps in non-scheduled medicines
The report drew a distinction between scheduled medicines, sold only on prescription, and non-scheduled drugs commonly bought over the counter. It said non-scheduled medicines faced virtually no effective price control and were being sold with high margins, including drugs for allergy, acidity, common cough, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Citing examples, the committee said retailers charged margins of 1,038% on cetirizine 10 mg and 953% on cetirizine hydrochloride 10 mg. It found margins of 1,119% on esomeprazole 40 mg, 920% on pantoprazole 40 mg and about 240% on paracetamol and similar medicines. These were illustrative cases, it added, with wide price differences seen even when formulations were identical.
Although rules cap annual MRP increases for non-scheduled medicines at 10%, the panel said there was no authority to regulate initial pricing. It recommended closing this gap and called for mandatory annual audits of pharmaceutical trade practices. The committee rejected retailers’ claims that higher prices were justified by operating and transport costs.
The report also urged the NPPA to function more effectively and promoted generic medicines as an alternative. Under the Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana, the government has set up over 16,000 Jan Aushadhi Kendras nationwide, offering about 2,100 medicines and 310 surgical items. According to the panel, the scheme helped people save about ₹38,000 crore over the past decade.
