Supreme Court stays Bombay High Court drug price order in favour of Pfizer

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has stayed a Bombay High Court order that told the government to review its direction to drug maker Pfizer to cap prices of popular cough syrup Benadryl.

A Supreme Court bench, comprising justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and NV Ramana, on August 8 also issued notices to the US multinational to formally state its position on the government appeal against the high court order issued on July 30, 2013.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had forced Pfizer to slash the prices of the drug stating the company could not have increased it more than 20% within a year. The company went to the high court, which ruled in its favour and asked the government to revisit its order.

NPPA challenged this in the Supreme Court through lawyer Shreekant N Terdal.