Patients in Uttar Pradesh will soon be able to check not only the price at which a medicine is sold to them but, in hospital pharmacies, the price at which it was purchased. The Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration (UPFSDA) has directed pharmacies across the state to create public websites and disclose details of licences, pharmacists, medicine prices and weekly stock.
The move follows the department’s findings of wide differences between the purchase price of medicines and their MRP or sale price, particularly at hospital pharmacies, where in-patients often have little choice but to buy medicines from the hospital pharmacy. The disclosure is intended to show whether patients receive the benefit of such institutional discounts. The directions, issued by FSDA commissioner Roshan Jacob, cite Paragraph 25 of the Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO), 2013, which requires retailers and dealers to prominently display manufacturers’ or importers’ price lists at their premises.
The department said enforcement action in recent months found instances where manufacturers, marketing companies and stockists supplied medicines to hospital pharmacies at substantial discounts, with the purchase price in some cases several times lower than the MRP.
Under the new directions, hospital pharmacies and those serving in-patients will have to publish the Price to Retail (PTR) and Price to Consumer (PTC) of medicines on their websites, along with the manufacturer, brand and generic names. PTR will show the price at which the pharmacy purchases a medicine from the manufacturer or marketer, while PTC will show the price charged to the patient. The requirements will apply beyond medicine prices. Every retail pharmacy in the state will have to create a public website displaying its name, drug licence number, licence-holder’s name and address, as well as the name, registration number and photograph of the pharmacist. The department clarified that the initiative is not a price-control measure, but a mandatory public disclosure system aimed at improving transparency in medicine procurement and sale.
