Dr Reddy's slams govt pharma proposal

Pharma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories has opposed the parliamentary Standing committee's recommendations of increasing the number of drugs under price control and cap on profit margins of all medicines.

"Price controls in the long run will never serve the purpose of the Indian Pharma industry," K Satish Reddy, Managing Director, Dr Reddy's Laboratories said.

The parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare, in its report, had suggested a series of measures like increasing the number of drugs under price control, a blanket cap on profit margins of all medicines and promoting the use of generic drugs to make it more affordable and accessible to the common man.

"The products which are under price control have actually stifled the profitability of companies. That's something which, has to be taken into notice. We have to understand what happens to Indian companies if the government is going to dictate how much of a profit the company has to make," Satish Reddy said on the sidelines of pharma CEOs conclave, organised here by Pharmexcil.

"When there is so much of competition, when there are so many brands available, there is so much choice available at this point of time, that has brought the prices down," he said.

"So where is the need for government to step in again to say that when the prices have gone down they should still further control the prices by taking a cost plus model which is where the issue is," he added.