Sudden transfer of NPPA chairman raises red flag

The transfer of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) chairman Bhupendra Singh, who has been the regulatory authority's chairman since 2016, is being deemed by many as premature as he has not completed his three-year term.

Singh is expected to succeed Inder Jit Singh as the Chairman of National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention (NACWC). The transfer follows NPPA's move of analysing inflated bills for four private hospitals — Fortis, Medanta, Max and BL Kapoor — where hospitals had gained upto 1737% margin on procurement of drugs, consumables and medical devices.

Singh has been at the helm of cardiac stent price control which restricted the prices of stents upto Rs 30,000. Initially the cost of stents ran into lakhs. The recent price revision of coronary stents angered the US-based MNCs which ran a malicious campaign against NPPA.

Activists have deemed the transfer as a move which seriously impacts public interest particularly when measures are being taken to plug unethical profiteering.

"We fear that Singh's transfer in total disregard to the public interest is due to the pressure from the industry and corporate hospital lobby. The pharmaceutical industry has long sought to undermine and weaken the NPPA in order to enable uninhibited profiteering and circumvention of the law," said Malini Aisola of All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN).

Enforcement was also significantly strengthened with the recovery of hundreds of crores due to overcharging by the industry. "The NPPA also saw unprecedented success in the courts with its stands vindicated by favourable judgments passed by the Supreme Court and High Courts in most cases," said an official from NPPA, who did not wish to be quoted.