In a decision that would impact the entire pharmaceutical industry, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has fixed the prices of 130 common drugs and antibiotics.
An analysis of the price revisions shows that it is a mixed bag of some increases accompanied by reductions. In several other cases, the span of price control has been expanded to new strengths and combinations of drugs that are already under price regulation.
For instance, the prices of pain reliever 'pentazocine' formulations have come down marginally from Rs 16.5 (for 10 tablets) to Rs 13.64. On the other hand, antibiotic combination 'trimethoprim' and 'sulphamethoxazole' (for 15 ml) has gone up from Rs 8.04 to Rs 9.40. In the case of spironolactone and salbutamol, ceiling prices have been fixed for a new strength.
The list of drugs includes analgin, salbutamol, gentamycin, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, rifampicin, betamethasone among others. The manufacturers of these drugs will have to revise or fix the prices of these drugs within two weeks, according to a NPPA statement issued today.
Almost all leading drug companies like Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's and Cipla manufacture these drugs and market them under different brand names.
The authority has also announced ceiling prices for medicines like mono-component insulin, lantus-insulin, recosulin and multi-vitamins.
Prices of all combinations that contains drugs like trimethoprim, theophylline, cefotaxime, chlorpromazine, framycetin, pentazocine, spironolactone, furazolidone, pheniramine maleate, pseudoephedrine, salbutamol, theophylline, rifampicin, betamethasone among others are also covered.
In addition to fixing prices of price-controlled medicines, the authority has also started invoking the public interest clause in the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO) to arrest the arbitrary price increase among the de-controlled category of medicines.
It has so far fixed prices of 20 medicines marketed by at least a dozen leading pharmaceutical companies in the last three months.
The new practice, to fix prices of all medicines whose prices have increased beyond a certain limit (20 percent) within a year, is to see more companies being asked to bring down their prices to the government-fixed ceiling, it is learnt.
The companies, the prices of whose brands have been found to be higher than the prescribed limit, include Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's, Nicholas Piramal, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Cadila Pharma and Wallace.