Key Points
New Delhi:Indias apex drug pricing regulator Monday allowed a 50 percent rise in the prices of 8 essential drugs used by people with asthma, glaucoma, thalassemia, tuberculosis, and mental health disorders...
The move by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority ( NPPA) under the pharmaceutical department will lead to a steep price rise in 11 formulations of the 8 medicines...
According to a government statement, the NPPA has been receiving applications from drug manufacturers concerned for upward revision of prices, citing various reasons such as an increased cost of active pharmaceutical ingredients, increase in the cost of production,change in exchange rates resulting in unviable sustainable production, and marketing of drugs..
It added that after detailed deliberations last week, the NPPA, invoking extraordinary powers under Para 19 of the Drug Price Control Order, 2013, in the larger public interest, has approved the increase in the ceiling prices of the scheduled drugs..
Most of the drugs concerned are low-cost and generally used as first-line treatment crucial to the public health programmes in the country, the government said.. Earlier, the NPPA invoked such extraordinary powers in 2019 and 2021, allowing a 50% percent increase in the prices of 21 and 9 formulations, respectively..
