The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere in the Centre’s drug pricing policy by which cardiac and diabetes drugs are set to get dearer.
Dealing with a PIl filed by advocate Ml Sharma, the court said that the issue was getting serious attention of the Government. It allowed the petitioner to file a representation to the Centre and await response to all his concerns. “You approach Centre seeking modification in the order. If the Centre does not do anything then you can come back,” said a Bench headed by Chief Justice Hl Dattu.
The PIl alleged that hike in prices of life saving drugs is against public interest and would lead to windfall gain to the pharmaceuticals companies at the cost of endangering lives of million of Indians. “There are around 4.1 crore diabetes, 5.7 crore coronary heart disease, 22 lakh TB, 11 lakh cancer, 25 lakh HIV/AIDS and 6 crore blood pressure patients in India facing life threat and another life threat due to impugned circular for decontrolling order and price rise in medicines,” the petition said.
Drug pricing regulator NPPA had withdrawn guidelines for price control issued under Para 19 of the Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO), 2013. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority had invoked Para 19 of the DPCO to cap prices of 108 cardiac and diabetes drugs on July 10.
Under the DPCO 2013, Government already controls the prices of 348 drugs listed in the National list of Essential Medicines.