Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Mar 10, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Mar 10, 2005 |
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Industry & Economy
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Pharmaceuticals `Formulate price mechanism for life-saving drugs' Our Bureau
New Delhi , March 9 With regard to the hike in prices of life-saving drugs by 4 to 6 per cent, the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) has asked the Government to undertake the process of formulating price mechanism for medicines. Till now, the country was able to produce many essential drugs at one of the lowest prices in the world because of the advantage of process patent practice that allowed domestic manufacturers to produce and market even the drugs that are under patent. As India becomes the signatory to the intellectual property rights regime, it will have to adhere to the international norms, leading to higher drug prices and thus directly affecting the common man's access to life saving drugs. According to the PHDCCI, worldwide, the national drug expenditure of a country in proportion to its total health expenditure ranges from 7 per cent to 66 per cent. In India it is 35 per cent. Any upward movement in the prices of many essential drugs can have deleterious effect on the well-being of the country's population because of its inadequate purchasing power. The PHDCCI also emphasised that in many high income countries, over 70 per cent of the pharmaceuticals are publicly funded or have social insurance or other reimbursement schemes. But in India, public medicine expenditure does not cover the basic medicine needs of majority of the population. It felt that the Government needed to think over how the common person would be able to take rise in drug prices with increasing diseases and exorbitant treatment.
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