NPPA chief Bhupendra Singh to move to NACWC

The current chief of India's drug pricing regulator has been transferred to a new role as part of a reorganisation of several Indian Administrative Services officials.

The appointments committee of the Cabinet has appointed current National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority chairman Bhupendra Singh to the National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention in the cabinet secretariat "in the rank and pay of additional secretary", according to a notification on Wednesday. It is unclear who would succeed him as the new chairman of NPPA.

Singh, NPPA's chairman since 2016, is one of 23 IAS officials to be appointed in a new role by the appointments committee and is expected to succeed Inder Jit Singh as chairman of NACWC.

Inder Jit Singh, additional secretary (coordination) at the cabinet secretariat was given additional charge of NACWC in September 2017. He has now been appointed as Secretary (Coordination), Cabinet Secretariat.

Under Bhupendra Singh, NPPA slashed the prices of cardiac stents by over 80% last year in a move to improve access to the life-saving devices, which are used to prevent heart attacks.

Later in 2017, NPPA also exercised emergency powers to fix maximum prices and trade margins of knee implants in "public interest", dropping their retail prices by up to 69%.

Recently, the drug pricing regulator also highlighted exorbitant margins that some hospitals in the NCR region were charging patients for various medicines, consumables and medical devices.