After Kerala, Punjab and Gujarat to get PMRU.

It will monitor prices of medicines and ensure their availability

After Kerala, it is now the turn of Punjab and Gujarat to have Price Monitoring & Research Unit (PMRU), set up by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) in collaboration with the Department of Health and State Drug Controller.

The government has announced that more States are in the process of setting PMRUs.

Earlier this year, Kerala became the first State to set up a price monitoring and research unit to track violation of prices of essential drugs and medical devices under the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO). PMRU is aimed at monitoring the notified prices of medicines, detection of violation of the provisions of DPCO (revised from time to time), pricing compliance and ensuring availability of medicines, among other objectives.

The units will function under the direct supervision of the State drug controller, explained a senior official. He said the PMRU scheme had been in the pipeline for quite some time and the draft scheme was ready way back in 2015. According to the draft, “in the first year, 90 per cent of the non-recurring expenses and six months’ advance for recurring expenses would be released as first instalment to those States or UTs that desire to set up the PMRUs.”

Meanwhile, for the purpose of staffing and providing the required infrastructure to the PMRU, it has been proposed to categorise States/ UTs into three categories: States/ UTs having population of more than 3% of total population, States/ UTs having population of less than 3% but more than 1% of the total population; and those having a population of less than 1% of the total population, said the senior official.

He said each PMRU would have to get the audit done annually. Release of further grants would depend upon the performance, actual expenditure and production of utilisation certificate of funds received (duly signed by SDC in the format prescribed by the Government of India for this purpose) in the previous year. (Source: The Hindu)