Context The Competition Commission of India (CC) in a recent report has recommended the creation of a National Digital Drugs Databank and strict enforcement of drug quality standards to boost price competition among generic drugs in India.
Key takeaways of the report
The market for generic drugs is driven by brand competition instead of price competition despite such drugs being functionally and chemically identical.
Pharmaceuticals including generic drugs account for about 43.2% of out of pocket healthcare expenditure in India and about 62.7% of the total health spending in India.
The share of online pharmacies stood at 2.8% in 2018, the online pharmacy sector’s reach has expanded during the pandemic to 8.8 million households from 3.5 million households prior to the pandemic.
About Competition Commission of India (CCI)
It is a statutory body established in 2003 and became fully functional in 2009.
It is responsible for enforcing The Competition Act, 2002 throughout India.
The Act prohibits anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position by enterprises.
The Act regulates combinations (acquisition, acquiring of control and Merger and acquisition), which causes or likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India.
CCI consists of a Chairperson and 6 Members appointed by the Central Government.
Eligibility: Person should be qualified to be a judge of a High Court, or, has special knowledge of, and professional experience of not less than fifteen years in international trade, economics, commerce, law, finance.
It is the duty of the Commission to:
eliminate practices having adverse effect on competition
