Competition Commission of India sets ball rolling for study into healthcare, pharma

The Competition Commission of India has set the ball rolling for a detailed study of the pharma and healthcare services sector in the national capital region.

Public and private hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms and their associations, doctors and their associations, among others, would be covered under the study. The regulator has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) from entities for carrying out the study. CCI noted that the baseline study would look at the issues in the sectors from the competition law perspective.

The fair trade watchdog is planning the study to understand whether there are anti-competitive practices in this sector as part of larger efforts to clamp down on unfair business practices and has also passed many orders in this regard.

In the past few years, the regulator has come across various instances in the pharmaceutical sector where competition norms seem to have been violated. Against this backdrop, the Competition Commission of India (CCI ) will soon carry out a study about the 'pharmaceutical sector and healthcare delivery systems/services in Delhi and NCR (National Capital Region)'.

Over the past few years, the Commission said it has come across various issues in the pharmaceutical sector and healthcare delivery systems.

These include non-availability of essential medicines, increasing price of drugs , nexus between pharmaceutical companies and pharmacists, nexus between pharmacists and doctors, nexus between doctors and pathological laboratories, nexus between doctors and pharmaceutical companies, and nexus between hospitals and insurance companies etc, it said.

(In association with Mail Today)