Thiruvananthapuram, 29 June:
The state drug control department has blacklisted 38 drugs that have
been priced at a rate higher than that fixed by the National
Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).
These drugs including b-complex syrups, antibiotics, eye and ear
drops, paracetamol and ibuprofen tablets cannot be sold in the state.
State drugs controller, C.S. Satheesh Kumar, said, "We are doing
this on a regular basis. From January till now we have got the sales of
38 drugs stopped.
We have not seized the products but have asked the companies to
withdraw them from the market. These were detected in the routine checks
by the drug inspectors. In 2011, we had got companies to withdraw 72
drugs from the market because of this."
The NPPA is responsible for fixing the price of the drugs, but
they can fix the maximum price for only 74 drugs and their combinations.
The drugs that are withdrawn are from the list of 74 drugs.
"There are guidelines that the price of the other drugs cannot be
hiked more than 10 per cent from their price the previous year. But if
we find out that the price of a drug is more than 10 per cent, we can
only report it to NPPA. We also report about the drugs that have a
higher price as compared to the similar drugs of other brands," he said.
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