Comments
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has increased the prices of 62 drugs, which are mainly based on indigenously manufactured insulin, giving a fillip to domestic firms.
The drug price regulator has also reduced the prices of 14 drugs, while that of 21 drugs remained unchanged at its latest review meeting held last week.
Majority of the drugs, whose prices have been increased, are used in the treatment of diabetes and tuberculosis.
“We have to do a balancing act and provide a level playing field to the indigenous manufacturers who account for nearly 10 per cent of the total domestic market for insulin,” the NPPA Chairman, Mr S.M. Jharwal, told PTI.
He, however, asserted that despite the price increase, drugs from these firms would still remain affordable.
“Although, the prices of the indigenously manufactured insulin-based formulations have been increased in range of 5-18 per cent, they would still be lower by nearly 15 per cent than the formulations based on the imported bulk insulin drug,” Mr Jharwal said.
At present, Biocon and Wockhardt are the only two domestic companies which manufacture insulin bulk drug indigenously.
The NPPA’s review meeting, which considered the prices for 19 drugs for the first time, reviewed the prices of drugs used in the treatment of diabetes, allergy, malaria, diahoerra, asthma and hyper tension along with antiseptics.
Justifying the increase in prices, NPPA said raw material cost and revision in the norms of conversion cost, packing charges and packaging materials as notified on December 16, 2010 necessitated the move.
The companies, which would be affected by the price revision of drugs, include Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis, Sanofi Aventis, GSK, Biocon, Wockhardt, Lupin and Cipla, the NPPA said.
The NPPA also revised the prices of four bulk drugs, following which diuretic spironolactone and salbutamol sulphate will be cheaper by 2.5 per cent and 18.87 per cent, respectively.
On the other hand, bulk drug pyrantel pamoate (used in formulations of deworming medicines) and anti-allergic pheniramine maleate will be costlier by 8.12 per cent and 13.87 per cent, respectively.
The reduction in the prices of formulation drugs has been in the range of 2.47 per cent to 35.04 per cent from the prices claimed by the respective companies.
Revision cases included more than 25 cases of anti-TB drugs for which there was no significant increase while sulphadoxine + pyrimethamine tablets will cost more due to upward revision in the import price of bulk drugs used for malaria.
Prices of certain drugs used for asthma and hypertension have been reduced, it added.
The NPPA was established on August 29, 1997 as an independent body of experts with the task of fixing and revising drug prices, both bulk drugs and formulations, to enforce prices and availability of drugs in the country.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.