Two pharma industry associations, representing small and mid-sized drug companies, are knocking the doors of the Court on the 45-day deadline to re-label medicines with revised prices.
The Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry has approached the Delhi High Court on the issue and the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association is expected to do the same on Tuesday, their representatives told Business Line .
The development comes as the first list of 151 medicines, whose prices were revised as part of the new drug policy and the Drug Price Control Order 2013, lapsed on Monday.
Companies were required to sell their medicines with the revised prices, 45 days from the date the revised price-list was notified. Else, they risked running foul of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, the implementing agency of the DPCO.
CIPI approached the Court, saying that medicines manufactured after the date of notification would show the revised ceiling price. But it was not possible for companies to recall existing stock supplied into the distribution channels, an industry representative said.
CIPI General Secretary B. Sethuraman confirmed that they filed a case in the Delhi High Court on Monday, and it was scheduled to come up for hearing on Tuesday. CIPI represents over 5,000 members from State associations across the country, he said.
Recall of stock
On Friday, Cipla had got interim relief from the Delhi high Court — which allowed it to sell the existing stock in the market, provided they supplied their revised price list to the trade channels.
Also taking legal recourse, IDMA representative Daara Patel said it would approach the Delhi High Court on Tuesday. There are 12,000 manufacturers, seven lakh retailers and 15,000 stockists — it is impossible to recall stocks already supplied into the channels, he said, mirroring the concern of several companies.
The Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance’s D. G. Shah agreed that the companies’ concerns were legitimate and IPA was also concerned with the approach of the Government in implementing this order.