Drug MNCs for keeping patient aid plan out of trade margin formula
patient assistance programme (PAP), which is designed to provide free access to drugs which are otherwise expensive, should be kept outside the scope of trade margin rationalisation (TMR).
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According to the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), PAP increases access and affordability and putting them under the ambit of TMR will severely impact patients who end up paying more for such products.
A lot of multinational companies including Novartis, Roche and AstraZeneca run PAP. In most of the programmes, which cover expensive cancer drugs or those for rare diseases, there are no intermediaries or trade as such. The hospital buys the drug directly from the manufacturer and bills it to the patient.
The government is planning to apply the TMR formula to drugs in order to bring down their prices.
The Department of Pharmaceuticals has been holding meetings with the stakeholders to discuss reforms in the pricing framework drugs and medical devices. Several meetings have taken place this month.
Presentations have been given so far by the OPPI, Indian Drug Manufacturers Association, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, All India Drugs Action Network and the Laghu Udhyog Bharti.
In their presentation before the department, the OPPI suggested keeping PAPs out of the ambit of the TMR.
«Innovative companies (Indian and MNCs) provide PAPs for
