This year should have been a standout one in the NPPA’s performance record with the Government firing its affordability salvo from the pricing authority’s shoulder, slashing prices of medicines and medical devices. But away from the public posturing of government announcements come the backroom efforts in the corridors of power to clip the regulator’s wings. So despite leading the effort to control medicine prices and slash trade margins on medical devices, the NPPA lives precariously. Be it the NITI Aayog’s discussions earlier this year or the recent Pharma Policy 2017, the aim seems to be to recast, reassign or even “wind up” the price regulator in its present form.

Set up on August 29,1997, the NPPA has seen its role swing between regulating and monitoring over the years. And this year should have been one of its most significant as it tackled troublesome issues around medical devices, bringing them under price control for the first time, starting with cardiac stents. Having extended the exercise to orthopaedic implants, more devices are to follow, including intra-ocular lenses and so on. On the medicines front too, the entire list of essential medicines is under price control.

The NPPA is not without its critics. Some question the formula being used to control medicine prices, while others call some of its decisions “arbitrary”. Love it or hate it, you cannot quite ignore the role of the NPPA. And the repeated onslaughts on the NPPA’s role have only proved as much.

Pro-health advocacy groups stand by the NPPA. In fact, the pricing regulator even finds an unlikely supporter in the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, the economic wing of the RSS. But will all that support be enough to save the NPPA from being weakened? Policymakers need to tread with care on the NPPA’s future role, impacting as it will both the pharma industry and patients.

Deputy Editor

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