The government has finalised the National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Policy 2012, which would replace the Drugs (Price Control) Order, 1994 that currently monitors and regulates prices of essential medicines in the country. The National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Policy, 2012 seeks to regulate drug prices on the basis of essentiality of the drug through market-based pricing (MBP) of formulations as opposed to regulating bulk drug prices through cost-based pricing (CBP) of bulk drugs under the Drug Policy of 1994. The new policy proposes to fix price ceiling on the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) on the basis of the simple average price of all the brands having market share (on the basis of moving annual turnover) of 1 per cent or more of the total market turnover of that medicine.