NPPA working as facilitator for pharma industry: Mandaviya

New Delhi [India], August 29 : The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has been working more as a facilitator than a regulator and played an important role in ensuring the availability and affordability of medicines in the country, Union Minister of Chemical and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya said on Monday.
Addressing the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, Mandaviya highlighted the noteworthy contribution of NPPA towards ensuring the availability and affordability of medicines in the last 25 years.
The minister also praised Indian industries for continuously producing quality products. He urged them to produce medicines and bring innovative research with the goal of ensuring good health and well-being of the people, not only for commercial purposes.
Mandaviya assured Indian pharma companies of continuous support from the government. He highlighted the PLI 1 and PLI 2 schemes for the industries, which have helped in bringing about indigenous manufacturing of many critical APIs in the country.
He also recalled the positive contribution of Indian pharma companies during the COVID crisis and highlighted the importance of cooperation and collaboration between the government and industry in bringing quality healthcare to the masses
Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Bhagwanth Khuba praised NPPA for being in service of the country and the pharma sector successfully for the last 25 years.
"NPPA ensures availability of affordable medicines without harming the interests of the industry," he said.
The minister said that with launch of two applications today, NPPA is expected to further carry on its work in a smooth and efficient manner in the coming years.
At the inaugural session, Integrated Pharmaceutical Database Management System 2.0 (IPDMS 2.0) and Pharma Sahi Daam 2.0 App were launched.
IPDMS 2.0 is an integrated responsive cloud-based application developed by NPPA with technical support from Centre for Advance Computing (C-DAC). It is envisaged to optimize synergies in operations in order to promote the Government's thrust on 'Ease of Doing Business' as it would provide a single window for submissions of various forms as mandated under Drug Price Control Order (DPCO),2013. It would also enable paperless functioning of NPPA and facilitate the stakeholders to connect with National Pharma Pricing Regulator from across the country.
Pharma Sahi Daam 2.0 App will have updated features like speech recognition; availability in Hindi and English; share button and bookmarking medicines. This version of Pharma Sahi Daam also has facility for launching complaints by consumer through the consumer complaint handling module. The App will be available in both iOS and Android versions.
A publication titled 'An overview of Drug Pricing @ NPPA 25-year Odyssey' was also launched at the inaugural session. The publication chronicles not only the 25-year journey of NPPA but also highlights the evolution of the drug regulatory system in the country with special emphasis on pricing regulation.