New Delhi, 5 July 2013: The drug price regulator is set to bring down prices of another 25 essential medicine packs by up to 90.26%, after it slashed MRP of 151 packs last month. The latest price reduction includes mostly cardiovascular drugs, anti-bacterials, anti-herpes, contraceptives and gastrointestinal medicines, an official source said.
For instance, the MRP of Clopidogrel 75 mg, a cardio vascular medicine used to inhibit blood clots in coronary artery disease and peripheral vascular disease, will come down from Rs 88.77 a tablet to Rs 1.36 per tablet.
Similarly, price of Isosorbide 5 Dinitrate 10 mg, another cardio vascular drug, will reduce by 19%. Price of anti-herpes injection Acyclovir 250 mg will drop by 41% to Rs 460.05 from Rs 672 earlier.
The decision was taken in a meeting of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) on Friday. The Authority is likely to notify the price orders by Monday, after which companies manufacturing these drugs will have 45 days to replace the existing stocks from the market with packs carrying the revised or reduced MRP. The lower range of the price reduction starts from 15.21%.
“We have taken IMS Health data for calculations as per Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO), 2013,” the official, with direct knowledge of the development, told Business Standard.
The DPCO, 2013 was recently notified by the government in line with the new pharmaceutical pricing policy cleared by the government last year. The DPCO, 2013 mandates NPPA to cap prices of 348 essential medicines based on the arithmetic average of all drugs in a particular segment with more than one% market share.
However, those who have their products currently priced below the cap will not be allowed to hike their prices to match the cap. This is significant as it would mean that the new formula will not allow prices to go up from the current level.
Also, the new prices will be notified only for those additional drugs which now enters the schedule category, whereas those which were already under price control can be sold at the existing MRP for one year.
The new market based mechanism is in contrast with the earlier DPCO, 1995 which was based on cost plus profit formula. According to industry analysts, drug makers such as GlaxoSmithKline Pharma, Cipla, Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy Laboratories and Abbott selling essential medicines are seen to be impacted most because of the new pricing regime.
The first price notification as per the new policy had come on June 17 capping prices of 151 medicines. With the latest decision, the government has fixed new prices of a total of 176 medicine packs out of a total 652 packs of 348 essential medicines. The packs are as per different strengths and dosages of a particular medicine.
The Authority’s next meeting is now scheduled for July 15, when it may take a call on the next batch of drugs. “We are doing it in phases to make the transition systematic and simpler,” the official said.
No comments:
Post a Comment