Bhupendra Singh, an Indian Administrative Service officer of 1985 cadre from Uttar Pradesh has taken over as the new chairman of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). He has earlier served as the principal secretary, government of Uttar Pradesh, divisional commissioner of Meerut, secretary general of a UN sponsored International Jute Study Group based in Dhaka and also joint secretary, textiles, government of India.

Before Bhupendra Singh took over as the NPPA chairman, Injeti Srinivas who was holding the additional charge of chairman of NPPA, has taken over as the new director general of Sports Authority of India (SAI). A 1983 cadre IAS officer from Odisha cadre, Srinivas is a graduate in economics and masters in business administration.

NPPA has been established through a government of India resolution on August 29, 1997, and is responsible for the implementation of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy, 2012 and the New Drugs (Prices) Control Order (DPCO), 2013. NPPA is an organisation of the government of India which was established, inter alia, to fix/ revise the prices of controlled bulk drugs and formulations and to enforce prices and availability of the medicines in the country, under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 1995.

The organisation is also entrusted with the task of recovering amounts overcharged by manufacturers for the controlled drugs from the consumers. It also monitors the prices of decontrolled drugs in order to keep them at reasonable levels.

As an independent regulator of drug price in the country, the NPPA is currently guided by the DPCO 2013, which provides for a market based pricing mechanism as opposed a cost based pricing mechanism that was prevalent under DPCO 1995.