Kochi: The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has launched a new app for consumers to compare the price and quality of medicines and report complaints immediately. The ‘Pharma Sahi Daam’ app has a facility to compare and select medicines including price and ingredients, and to report complaints about the quality of medicines through the app.
Launched as part of NPPA’s Silver Jubilee celebrations, the app is available on the Play Store. Companies charging different prices for medicines of the same quality and ingredients have led to huge complaints. In this context, NPPA aims to introduce a system where the user can directly check the price and ingredients and get the medicine.
NPPA is also implementing a new data base management system as part of making the day-to-day procedures including licensing of drug manufacturing companies and drug shops in the country transparent. The aim is to ensure centralized monitoring of the drug market in the country by implementing the Integrated Pharmaceutical Data Base Management System (IPDMS).
Price control
There is a plan to extend the price control to 139 drug ingredients on the model of price control for cancer drugs. Medicines used for diseases including blood pressure and diabetes are controlled. The government is trying to control the margin between producers and distributors. Major drug manufacturing and distribution companies have expressed concern, but the report regarding this is under consideration by the Union Health Ministry.
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