evidence: Apex think tank Niti Aayog has proposed a change in the manner the government identifies medicines that should be brought under price control. It wants the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), the rule framed under Essential Commodities Act to fix ceiling prices for drugs, de-linked from the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) prepared by the health ministry. The proposal, part of Niti Aayog's draft Three Year Action Plan, if approved, can open a Pandora's box as criteria for selecting medicines that need to be brought under government price control has always been a contentious issue. For instance, the rationale for the much debated decision to cap the prices of cardiac stents was that the medical device was one of the items in the NLEM, and subsequently notified as an essential medicine under DPCO. If the government decides to delink NLEM from the DPCO, it can lead to a fresh debate on the number, category and class of drugs and medical devices that should come under price control. [...] The policy was challenged in the court by public interest groups, which resulted in a Supreme Court directive that ordered the Central government to ensure that no essential medicines should be out of price control because of the change. The government complied with the Court order by deciding to have NLEM as the basis for the medicines and medical devices that should be brought under price control.