NEW DELHI, 26 JUNE:
India's drug price regulator, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority,
is expected to soon revise prices of about 50 medicines, including
painkillers and diabetes drugs.
Two officials in the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers said
the drugs under review include painkiller ibuprofen, anti-inflammatory
drug prednisolone, and insulin that is used for the treatment of type 1
and type 2 diabetes mellitus
.
These officials said the regulator might consider increasing the
price of both imported and locally-made insulin. Under India's drug
pricing laws, the maximum retail price of medicines made using 74 bulk
drugs are fixed by the government. The MRP is decided by giving a top-up
on the cost of production of a drug if it is made locally, or over the
landed price declared by companies for imported ones. Companies
periodically seek approval of the regulator to raise the price of their
drugs if there is a hike in the cost of production or of any ingredient.
The NPPA is expected to discuss price revision in its bi-monthly meeting next week, one of the officials quoted above said.
If the price of drugs used to treat diabetes is increased, it
would benefit Danish company Novo Nordisk, US-based Eli Lilly, Sanofi
Aventis, Biocon and Wockhardt. India is home to an estimated 60 million
diabetics. Among the 50-odd drugs, some are bulk drugs, or the chemical
used to make a drug. A change in price of any of them will
correspondingly translate into prices of several brands made using the
raw material.
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