Diabetes medicines, antibiotics to now get cheaper in India

India has extended price caps to 39 more medicines ranging from commonly used diabetes drugs to antibiotics, in the government's latest effort to improve affordability of medicines.

The move impacts multinational drugmakers, like Abbott Laboratories and GlaxoSmithKline Plc, and a number of local firms, including Lupin Ltd, Cadila Healthcare Ltd and Ipca Ltd, all of whom sell drugs added to the list.

A notice posted on the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) website late on Wednesday detailed the 39 new drugs, which extend a price control list that already includes more than 652 medicines.

New drugs added to the list include commonly used antibiotics such as azithromycin, combinations of metformin for diabetes, as well as the anti-emetic domperidone.