DRUG PRICE CUTS !

I started sending the blogs to this site with the topic 'union budget 2008 and its impact on Indian pharmaceuticaltical sector’. Now, the central government has started the steps to follow the recommendations of the latest union budget. In the third round of drug price cuts resulting from February’s industry-friendly Union (federal) Budget, the Indian government has announced that the prices of more than 150 life-saving drugs in over 1,000 formulations are to be reduced. The budget’s reduction in countervailing duty (CVD) rate from 16% to 8% has lowered the price of the key raw materials which are imported to our country.

 The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the drug price regulator, which scrutinized the post-Budget prices of such raw materials, has notified the reduced prices of over 1,000 packs of such medicines. The NPPA has also reduced the prices of imported medicines marketed by multinational drug firms like Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi Aventis and Eli Lilly. NPPA scrutiny found that of the 64 types of bulk drugs (medicine raw material) whose prices are directly fixed by the government, over 36 have imported ingredients.

Industry estimates that the medicines whose prices are being revised enjoy a combined marketshare of about Rs 4,000 crore. These include life-saving drugs like carbamezapine, salbutamole suphate, rifampicin, human insulin, betamethazone and ranitidine. According to sources, of the 36 bulk drugs with imported content, the prices of 33 were found to have been changed. In 21 cases, the price reduction is more than 1 per cent. NPPA’s internal guidelines say that all price reductions above 1 per cent have to be passed on to consumers. The NPPA had signalled this move on March 20 by announcing the reduced prices of 38 bulk drugs. This is the third NPPA directive for reduction in medicine prices as a result of favourable Budget announcements. The government had brought down the excise duty on medicines from 16 per cent to 8 per cent.

Meantime, on April 12 the NNPA is to hold an international seminar to discuss its ongoing examination of the drug pricing systems and policies of a number of major overseas nations.The seminar, which is being organised with the aid of the UK Department of International Development, will look at issues including how to assure that medicines will be affordable to all consumers under India’s new product patent regime .

So, all these movements by the government with NPPA will make available of the life saving drugs to the common people of the country. As we know, India is a nation where majority of the population is not having the enough monetary status to procure the necessary drugs in order to sustain their life. This will be a milestone in the health care sector of our nation as the common man can afford the drugs at cheaper prices.