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Telangana: Essential drug prices to reduce

The medicine market in India is estimated at Rs 5,500 crore

Hyderabad: The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority is thinking of bringing highly used medicines and vaccines for viral infections, asthma, tuberclosis, malaria and a small section of cancer drugs, under the essential prices list. Eight therapeutic categories where incidence of disease is high and medicines are used widely are being scrutinised by the government.

A senior official of the drug control authority in Telangana explained, “The consumption of these medicines is high in the market. They can be categorised as fast-moving medicines. For that reason a cap of 25 per cent is being considered on the average price which will help the customers get the medicines at cheaper rates.”

The cost of medicines in all these diseases is very high and families end up spending large amounts of money on them. Dr S. Ramakrishna explained, “In case of tuberculosis, nine varieties of antibiotics are to be taken for six to nine months. Malaria requires proper treatment or there can be a relapse. Similarly, asthma patients are on continuous treatment for years together. The burden on the family is high, as health is the first priority for everyone. If the prices are reduced it will bring a lot of relief to these patients.”

According to a senior drug control officer, “The profit margins in anti-cancer drugs and anti-retroviral drugs are huge. If the prices are slashed it will benefit the patients tremendously.” The Drugs Price Control Order asked to lower prices of widely used medicines in public interest has been revoked by the regulator in the essential price list.

Similarly, they are planning to revoke the order for these diseases. This will help to level price differences. But the flipside is that multinational drug makers like Sanofi, Astra Zeneca, Merck, Pfizer and Abbott will be affected widely due to the price caps.

Indian drug makers like Cadila Healthcare, Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Lupin, Cipla and Torrent will also be heavily affected. The medicine market in India is estimated at Rs 5,500 crore.

( Source : dc correspondent )
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