New Delhi: Medicines widely used to treat diabetes, infections, pain and digestive disorders will cost 5-40% less with immediate effect, with the drug price regulator issuing an order to fix the prices of 39-odd formulations.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority’s (NPPA) order, issued on Wednesday, includes drug combinations such as ciprofloxacin hydrochloride, cefotaxime, paracetamol, domperidone and metformin + glimepiride and amoxycillin + potassium clavulanate.
These drugs and combinations are marketed by companies such as Abbott, GlaxoSmithKline, Lupin, Cadila Healthcare, IPCA and Sun Pharma, among others. According to analysts, these drugs have a market size of around Rs 1,054 crore (moving annual total value).
The NPPA order covers combinations of drugs under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) and one non-NLEM drug under the Drug Price Control Order, 2013. While NPPA has fixed the ceiling prices of around 35-odd formulations, those of 3-4 other drugs have been revised, official sources in the department of pharmaceuticals, ministry of chemicals & fertilizers, told TOI.
“The move impacts multinational drugmakers like Abbott Laboratories and GSK and domestic firms. The overall impact for companies would be minimal as these drugs do not form a significant portion of the overall sales of the company,” Angel Broking VP (research — pharma) Sarabjit Kour Nangra said.
Drug pricing policy irrational, SC tells Centre
The NPPA directive comes a day after the Supreme Court asked the Centre to re-examine its drug pricing policy for essential medicines, calling it “unreasonable and irrational”.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to re-examine its drug pricing policy for essential medicines, calling it “unreasonable and irrational” as the price of some medicines is at around 4000% higher than what has been fixed by some state governments.
A bench headed by Justice TS Thakur asked the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers to analyze and give explanation why the controlled price of essential medicines has been fixed at a high level depriving the poor from getting life-saving drugs at reasonable rates.
“The formula does not seem reasonable and rational. Your pricing is 4000% more than what is being provided by Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments. What kind of control is it? Why are you not taking cognizance of it?” the bench asked the government.
Additional solicitor general Pinky Anand assured the court that the government would look into the issue and take corrective measures, if required.
The bench directed All India Drug Action Network, an NGO which challenged the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), to make a representation to the government. It said that the ministry would pass a reasoned order within six months.
At present, the government caps prices of a total of 348 essential medicines based on the simple average of all medicines in a particular therapeutic segment with sales of more than 1 per cent.
The government had notified DPCO, 2013, which covers 680 formulations, with effect from May 15, 2014, replacing the 1995 order that regulated prices of only 74 bulk drugs.
Challenging the DPCO, the petitioner contended that under the new policy the margin of profit for drug manufacturers and dealers had become 10-1300 per cent. It also said the National List of Essential Drugs consists of only 348 drugs and left out many essential medicines from price control.
