To check hoarding, DCGI seeks info on API stock, use

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, May 19

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has sought information about the stocks, sources and usage of raw material active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in various formulations from the State Drugs Controller (SDC) following an unprecedented rise in their prices.

The DCGI has asked the SDC for information pertaining to the sources and stocks of the APIs, both domestic and imported, installed capacities of pharmaceutical units as well as their utilised capacities and the average monthly production during the current year.

The Indian Drug Manufacturers Association, and the Himachal Drug Manufacturers Association have been vociferously raising the issue of the unprecedented rise in the prices of the APIs, including paracetamol; its prices have doubled in the past one year.

The drug manufacturers have urged the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to allow a 20 per cent upward price revision of all non-scheduled drugs and also a hike in the prices of scheduled formulations, as rising costs have made business unviable.

Dinesh Dua, CEO and Executive Director at Nectar Lifesciences Ltd, says that it is an exercise in futility as only coordination between the officials of the Health and Family Welfare, Finance, Chemical and Fertilisers and Customs departments can help check the hoarding of APIs by traders.

“The export data can be extracted to crack down on API traders, who hoarded the raw material after its import from China was affected last year. Unless all departments coordinate, the problem of an exponential price hike will persist. The worst sufferers will be micro, small and medium sector manufacturers, which produce 40 per cent of the value and 60 per cent of the volume of drugs in the nation,” adds Dua.

“Indiscriminate overstocking can be easily checked by comparing the export data. If the Union Government wants to give relief to the industry, it should crack down on traders in a coordinated manner,” says Dua.

SL Singla, adviser to the Himachal Drug Manufacturers Association, says, “The exercise to seek the details of APIs from drug manufacturers will yield little, as this information is regularly communicated to various authorities, including the DCGI, and the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority”.

“This exercise will not only take weeks to complete but also will not address the problem of hoarding of APIs and the subsequent rise in their prices in the domestic market. If corrective measures are not taken soon, a shortage of several Covid drugs will be visible as their production has reduced drastically,”adds Singla.