-The Economic Times Max Super Specialty, Patparganj has made “unfair” and “excessive” profits on the sale of disposable syringes to patients admitted in its hospital, an investigation by the Competition Commission of India has revealed. The commission is expected to hold a hearing on this issue on December 20. CCI in 2015 ordered a probe into allegations that the hospital had colluded with multinational syringe maker Becton Dickinson’s Indian arm to sell...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's drug pricing rules allow companies to inflate the maximum retail prices of medicines, including life-saving drugs, costing patients thousands of additional rupees while offering slices of the profits to stockists, chemists, and hospitals. Quotations received by hospitals from drug companies' representatives offering discounts on maximum retail prices (MRPs) of medicines provide what some doctors and patients' rights advocates say is fresh evidence for excessive profiteering in India's...

-The Indian Express Responding to specific queries on the issue, Bhupendra Singh, NPPA chairman, told The Indian Express that “examination of hospital records is in process”. AFTER the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) in February ordered a cap on the prices of coronary stents and directed hospitals to issue separate bills specifying their cost, the drug pricing watchdog has started receiving consumer complaints against hospitals which are allegedly hiking the prices...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a move that could significantly bring down prices of expensive medicines, a high-level committee has recommended capping of trade margins for costly drugs at 35% of MRP (maximum retail price). The recommendations - part of a report submitted by an inter-ministerial committee - have been put in the public domain by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, inviting comments on the suggestions. The committee was set up...

-Civil Society Online Bhubaneswar: Laxman Goud, a 35-year-old farmer in Thakurpalli village in Komna block of Nuapada district of Odisha, used to lead a very simple life. He was a devoted follower of Mahima Dharma, a subaltern religion practised by underprivileged castes in Odisha. One morning, he took his life in desperation. He couldn’t repay Rs 19,000 he had borrowed from a local moneylender at 36 per cent interest. Goud had invested...