50% Price Hike Approved for 8 Essential Drugs, Including Asthma and TB Medications

Regulator approves 50% price hike drugs

50% Price Hike Approved for 8 Essential Drugs: India’s drug price regulator has approved a 50% hike in prices of essential drugs used to treat asthma, glaucoma, thalassemia, tuberculosis and mental health issues to prevent medicines from “vanishing” from the market.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has revised the ceiling prices of eight scheduled drugs to meet the “twin objectives of availability and affordability”, the authority said in a statement. “Most of these drugs are low-cost and generally used as first-line treatment crucial to the public health programmes of the country.”

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Eleven formulations for which ceiling prices have been revised are benzylpenicillin (10 lakh IU injection), atropine injection (0.6 mg per ml), streptomycin powder (for injection 750 mg and 1000 mg), salbutamol tablet (2 mg and 4 mg), respirator solution (5 mg per ml), Pilocarpine 2% drops, Cefadroxil tablet (500 mg), Desferrioxamine (500 mg for injection) and Lithium tablets (300 mg).

The NPPA in the statement said the authority has been receiving requests from manufacturers to increase prices due to reasons such as increase in cost of active pharmaceutical ingredients (raw materials), increase in production costs and change in exchange rates.

This has made it difficult for companies to sustainably manufacture and market some of the drugs. Some companies have even requested to stop manufacturing certain products as they are no longer viable. “Companies have also applied for discontinuation of some of the formulations as they are not viable,” NPPA said.

The drug price regulator, which is supposed to ensure availability of essential drugs at affordable prices, invoked extraordinary powers under Para 19 of the Drug Pricing Control Order, 2013 on October 8.

“…in larger public interest, NPPA has approved an increase in the ceiling prices of eleven (11) scheduled formulations of eight (8) drugs by 50% of their current ceiling prices.”

“Most of these drugs are low-cost and generally used as first-line treatment crucial to the public health programmes of the country. These drugs are used for the treatment of Asthma, Glaucoma, Thalassemia, Tuberculosis, mental health disorders, etc.”

Earlier NPPA had invoked extraordinary powers in 2019 and 2021 and had increased prices of 21 and 9 formulations by 50% respectively to ensure availability of essential drugs for the public.

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This is important because the low cost drugs were about to disappear from the Indian market — like multiple other formulations for which Indian companies are now dependent on imports from China.

Companies are seeking price hike or permission to discontinue drugs in most cases as price ceilings are making the product unviable.

Example: The formulation Benzylpenicillin (10 lakh IU injection) is an antibiotic injection used to treat multiple bacterial infections such as throat infections, ear infections, respiratory tract infections, skin and soft tissue infections and sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis.

Top companies manufacturing these injections are Alembic Pharma and Hindustan Antibiotics Limited which are selling them at affordable prices between Rs 6 to Rs 9 per injection.

Similarly atropine sulphate injection is used to treat bradycardia or slow heart rate. The drug helps in restoring normal heart beat in cardiac arrest cases and is used by experts before general anaesthesia to reduce saliva release. This was available at Rs 3 to Rs 5 per injection and was manufactured by T Walker’s Pharmaceuticals.

Another one is streptomycin injection which is used along with other medicines to treat tuberculosis. This antibiotic stops the growth of tubercular bacteria and is available at Rs 7 to Rs 9 by Hindustan Antibiotics and Macleods Pharma.

Deferoxamine injection is used to treat iron overload and transfusion dependent thalassemia for those who undergo blood transfusions regularly. It costs around Rs 160 and is available by Novartis.

Dr Yatin Mehta, chairman, critical care, at Gurugram’s Medanta Hospital said: “These are low cost but essential drugs. No point in killing the chicken before it lays the eggs. Industry also must survive. This action is timely and essential.”

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