Price Monitoring and Resource Unit (PMRU) set up in Karnataka

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, in collaboration with the Karnataka State Drug Control Department, has launched the Price Monitoring and Resource Unit in the state. The PMRU will be mainly responsible for making access to medicine convenient for all the citizens of the state.

Details of the PMRU

The PMRU will have the first-ever governing body meeting by the end of August 2020 in order to discuss the programs, measures in creating consumer awareness as well as ensuring affordability and accessibility of medicines in the state. The board of governors of a PMRU includes members from the central government, the state governments and also all other stakeholders. The PMRU at Karnataka also has all these members.

The objective of the PMRU

The main objective of the PMRU is to help the NPPA in monitoring the prices of drugs and also the availability of such drugs in the state. This is set up under the Central Sector Scheme, Consumer Awareness Publicity and Price Monitoring. The NPPA has set up PMRUs in 12 states such as Kerala, Odisha, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Mizoram, Andhra Pradesh, etc.

The Road Ahead

The NPPA has decided to set up the Price Monitoring and Resource Unit in all the 36 states and UTs of the country under the CAPPM scheme. The expenses of these units, both recurring and non-recurring, are borne by the NPPA only.

About NPPA

Constituted in 1997, it is a government regulatory agency that controls the prices of pharma drugs in the country. This organization publishes the lists of medicines and their maximum prices under the Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO). The last such order came into being in 2013 and that has a list of 384 drugs in it.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2020