Maharashtra FDA Commissioner made recommendation to NPPA on pricing gap of hospital consumables

Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Tukaram Munde has initiated action to focus on the drug part of FDA as he has written to the Department of Pharmaceuticals and National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), recommending guidelines on the permissible gap between trade procurement and MRP.

Calling the gap a core public health issue, Mr. Munde said, “The most expensive part of a hospital bill may never touch the hospital at all. A patient admitted for care has no way of knowing whether the price on a medical consumable reflects its actual cost or a markup fixed long before it ever reached the ward.“