Register With Online Database: Drug Pricing Regulator to Firms

New Delhi: With 32 of top 100 pharmaceutical firms not responding to its direction to register for online database, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has asked pharma associations to ask their members to register immediately.

National drug price regulator NPPA had asked all pharma firms to register themselves with the Integrated Pharmaceutical Database Management System (IPDMS) in September last year and had warned early this month to take action against the companies that had not complied with its order.

"32 companies have not yet registered with the Integrated Pharmaceutical Database Management System (IPDMS)," NPPA said in a letter to pharma industry bodies.

There are various bodies which represent pharmaceutical companies in India, including Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) and Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association (IDMA).

The list of companies which have not registered include Zydus Cadila, IPCA labs, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Alembic, among others.

In September last year, NPPA had asked all pharmaceutical firms to register themselves under the IPDMS for online filing of returns for monitoring, fixing and revision of drug prices.

It had said that availability of reliable database is a necessary pre-requisite for carrying out the functions of price fixation and price revision in respect of scheduled drugs and price fixation in respect of new drugs.