Eli Lilly unhappy with National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, calls for consultative approach

NEW DELHI: US pharma major Eli Lilly & Co today expressed disappointment over decision of India's drug price controller NPPA to fix price of medicines that are not under price control, and called for a transparent consultative approach with all stakeholders before taking such a step.

"We are surprised and disappointed by this unexpected action," Eli Lilly and Co India Managing Director Edgard A Olaizola said.

Last week, The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had fixed price of 108 non-scheduled formulation packs of 50 anti-diabetes and cardiac medicines.

The NPPA had invoked Para 19 of the Drugs Price Control Control Order (DPCO) 2013, a clause that authorises the drug pricing regulator to fix ceiling price or retail price of any drug for specific period under extraordinary circumstances, if it considers necessary so to do in public interest.

As per the DPCO 2013, the government currently controls the prices of 652 essential drugs listed in the NLEM (National List of Essential Medicines).

Olaizola, however, said the company is "working to ensure we comply with all orders issued by the NPPA regarding pricing of medicines."

Unhappy with the way NPPA has gone ahead to fix prices of drugs that are not in the NLEM list he said: "It is important to ensure that such decisions do not have a detrimental impact on Indian patients when they need to access some of the world's best quality medicines."

Stressing on the need to take views of parties involved, Olaizola said: "Overall, we advocate adopting a consultative approach in which all stakeholders are involved to ensure transparent market based caps on essential medicines, with continued flexibility in the pricing of other medicines."

The pharmaceutical industry is an integral part of the healthcare system and an all-inclusive outlook is critical for its growth and sustainability to ensure a robust healthcare environment, he added.