Ceiling price
Regulation & taxThe maximum price at which a scheduled formulation may be sold, computed by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority as the simple average of the prices to retailer of brands above a 1% share of that formulation, plus a notified 16% retailer margin.
In plain terms
It is revised annually against the wholesale price index — an index with no connection to what the company paid for its active ingredient. That asymmetry is the whole structural feature of price control.
Drug Price Control Order
Regulation & taxAlso called: DPCO
The order under which the central government controls medicine prices in India, fixing ceiling prices for formulations in the National List of Essential Medicines and capping the annual increase on non-scheduled ones at 10%.
In plain terms
It is why the essential half of an Indian pharmaceutical portfolio behaves nothing like the rest, and why revising the essential medicines list moves products into and out of control without the company doing anything at all. Extraordinary powers to fix prices exist and have been used at short notice.