Mumbai: In a major relief to people suffering from diabetes and cardiac-related problems, the prices of widely used anti-diabetic and cardio-vascular medicines would come down by 10 per cent to 35 per cent as the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has decided to bring 108 formulation packs of such medicines under the price control regime.
The move assumes significance since the medicines, which were brought under the price control mechanism, were not earlier listed under the national list of essential medicines (NLEM).
However, NPPA under extraordinary circumstances has the authority to fix the ceiling price or retail price of any drug for such a period as it deems fit in the general public interest.
With this decision, the list of the total market of cardiac molecules under the price control regime including the earlier released items stands at 57.48 per cent while that of anti-diabetic market stands at 20.99 per cent. The government had last year fixed the prices of 652 drugs under NLEM under the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO).
Dr Shailesh Ayyanger, president, organisation of pharmaceutical producers of India (OPPI) said that the pharmaceutical industry wants stability and predictability in the regulatory environment.
“However, NPPA’s arbitrary and unilateral action runs contrary to all these sentiments. It has shocked the industry and will be detrimental to the investment climate for market expansion, brand building and employment generation in the future,” he added.
Industry experts pointed out that the multinational pharmaceutical companies would have to take a major hit on their margins following the latest government move to cap prices.
