CCI extends deadline for bids to conduct pharma study

The Competition Commission has extended the deadline for submitting bids to carry out a detailed study of pharma and healthcare services sector in the national capital region. The anti-trust regulator is planning the study to understand whether there are unfair practices in this sector as part of larger efforts to clamp down on anti-competitive business practices and has also passed many orders in this regard. In recent years, CCI has come across various instances in the pharmaceutical sector where competition norms seem to have been violated. Entities interested in conducting "baseline study/ survey in the pharmaceutical sector and healthcare delivery system/ services in Delhi & NCR region," for Competition Commission of India (CCI) can now submit their bids till November 5. The earlier deadline for submission of bids ended on October 17. Under the proposed study, public and private hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms and their associations, doctors and their associations, among others, would be covered. While inviting Expression of Interest (EOI) in September, the watchdog had said that it came across various issues in pharmaceutical sector and healthcare delivery systems/ services. 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 had said. As per CCI, the primary objective of the baseline study/ survey is to collect information and credible evidences on competition issues in the concerned sector and present the same in an analytical manner.