The Kerala High Court on Friday sought the responses of the State government and the Kerala Medical Services Corporation to a plea by a pharmaceutical company for a directive to make payment of the outstanding amount of ₹9.5 crore towards the price of medicines supplied to Karunya pharmacies.
The petition was filed by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited. According to the company, it had started supplying medicines to the corporation with a credit facility of 30 days. Though the period of agreement ended on October 31, 2022, the petitioner continued to supply medicines based on Letter of Intent ( LoI), which specifically assured payment within 45 days of supply. However, the payments were delayed up to 5-6 months. Since patients dependent on the medicines supplied by the petitioners required the medicines on a regular basis, it had become the moral responsibility of the petitioner to continue uninterrupted supply to the Karunya community pharmacies. When the Kerala Medical Services Corporation was selling the medicines supplied by the petitioner through the Karunya pharmacies on cash, there was no reason or justification for delaying the payment to the petitioner for long periods of 3-6 months. The delay is causing the petitioner financial loss.
