Prices of popular medicines cut

POPULAR medications to treat chest pain, anxiety, allergy and diabetes have become cheaper by 2% to 39%. Five leading drug makers — Wockhardt, Nicholas Piramal, Cipla, Cadila Healthcare and Shreya Life Sciences — have reduced the prices of key products after the chemicals and fertilisers ministry recently asked them to do so in public interest.
The medicines are Nicholas Piramal’s anti-anxiety drug Stemetil 5 mg tablet, chest pain reliever Sorbitrate 10 mg, antiallergy drug Phenargan injection 25 mg 2 ml, Wockhardt’s anti-diabetic drug Mopaday tablet 15 mg and 30 mg, anti-allergy drug Practin tablet 4 mg, antidepressant Lybotryp tablet 12.5 mg, Cadila Healthcare’s anti-inflammatory drug Oxalgin DP tablet 50 mg, Cipla’s drug for worm infestation Mebex 100 mg tablet and 100 mg 30 ml suspension besides Shreya Life Sciences’ Emidoxin tablet 5 mg, according to sources in the government.
Although these were not expensive drugs, their prices had increased by more than 20%, according to the government, which studied them for 12 months on an individual basis. The price cuts are significant to a large number of patients as these are commonly used drugs to treat these conditions.
The ministry asked these companies to reduce prices as it was not satisfied with the reasons given to justify the price hike. It has, however, found that 13 other products — mostly of these companies — recommended by the price watchdog National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) for appropriate action, do not require any pressurising to reduce prices as they have not become costlier by more than the allowed 20% rise in 12 months. These include products of Nicholas Piramal, Cipla, Zydus Cadila, Maneesh Pharma, Dr Reddy’s and Khandelwal Labs.
Drug makers had earlier protested at the government’s pressure to lower prices under a public interest clause in the drug pricing law saying that these products are not expensive and some of them are cheaper than the top selling brand in the class. The ministry’s intent is to make medicines affordable to a large number of poor in the country who live on less than Rs 50 a day.
So far, the chemicals ministry has been giving hearings to companies when the price regulator recommends that a drug should be brought under price control. Recently it has given a free hand to NPPA to take action on all cases of abnormal price increase.
NOW WITHIN REACH
• Drugs like Stemetil, Sorbitrate, Phenargan, Mopaday to see a reduction in prices by up to 39%
• Move follows govt’s recent appeal to make more drugs available to the poor
• Although these drugs are not expensive, prices had recently increased by more than 20%
courtesy:economictimes

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