From petrol to onions, everything is getting more and more expensive by every passing day, making life tougher for the common man.?Now there is more bad news for the common man - the prices of 21 essential, life-saving medicines are set to go up.?
The prices of some key antibiotics like metronidazole and benzylpenicillin, antimalarial?drug chloroquine and leprosy medication dapsone, anti-allergic drugs, BCG vaccine, and Vitamin C will soon increase by up to 50 percent after the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) allowed manufacturers to hike the prices.?
Under the revised prices BCG vaccine will now cost Rs 8.75, while a tablet of 150 mg chloroquine will be priced a Rs 1.16 and a 400mg tablet of metronidazole will now cost Rs 1.25.?
This is for the first time the NPPA has used its extraordinary powers to increasing prices in public interest.According to the NPPA, a one time increase in the prices of 21 essential medicines will ensure the adequate supply of these quality drugs in the market.?
NPPA which has so far only reduced the prices of medicines was forced to increase the prices as several companies were planning to discontinue the manufacturing of the drugs due to the increase in costs of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from China, which supplies nearly 60 percent of the country's needs.?
According to the pharma industry prices of APIs have gone up in the range of 5-88 percent which made their manufacturing unsustainable. They had also argued that if there is a shortage of supply of these essential medicines, patients will be forced to opt for costlier or even inferior alternatives.?
According to NPPA most of these drugs are used as the first line of treatment and are crucial to the country¡¯s public health programme. NPPA's ¡°mandate is to ensure the availability of drugs at affordable prices. But while ensuring affordability, access cannot be jeopardized and life-saving essential drugs must remain available to patients. Therefore, NPPA is of the considered view that unavailability of these formulations should not lead to a situation where these drugs become unavailable in the market, and patients are forced to switch to costly alternatives¡±, the regulator said.?
NPPA also added that it has been receiving requests form the pharma companies under para 19 of DPCO (Drug Price Control Order) 2013 for the past two years to increase the prices. According to DPCO, prices of scheduled formulations can be revised only once a year¡ªin April, based on the change in the wholesale price index of medicines in the preceding calendar year.?