Big pharma objects to India's pricing request

India is clamping down on price hikes by global drugmakers. It has nixed increases on imports when manufacturers won't share pricing details.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are among the multinationals objecting to the practice of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, which fixes the maximum price at which an imported drug can be sold in India. The NPPA caps the price of imports based on the landed price declared by companies and provides an additional margin of up to 50 percent. For local drugmakers, the regulator reviews raw material and manufacturing cost and other details to fix the price cap, says the Economic Times

NPPA has requested pricing details from the global drugmakers to verify whether the landed cost price is reasonable. It had asked the importers to disclose manufacturing costs and selling price in their home country and in other countries for comparison. The global pharmas say that revealing such details compromises their competitiveness and provides incorrect price comparisons.

Eli Lilly is challenging the NPPA in court, and Novo Nordisk is seeking a government review.

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