Union Ministry of Health is planning to bring 348 drugs of the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) under price control which is facing stiff resistance from the pharma industry. The ASSOCHAM estimates that around 75% of the industry will come under price control in case the draft National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Policy (NPPP, 2011) is pursued in its present form.
According to the government estimates that the new policy would bring 60% of the Rs 48,200-crore domestic formulation industry under the pricing control compared to 20% earlier. But the chairman of ASSOCHAM’s drugs and pharmaceuticals Council cautioned that it will cripple the pharma sector.
As per the ministry sources, more than 300 drugs were under the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) in the early 1980s that was subsequently reduced to 140 in 1987. At present, prices of only 74 bulk drugs and formulations, containing any of these scheduled drugs, are under the price control regime. But once a medicine is brought under DPCO, it cannot be sold at a price higher than that fixed by the government.
NLEM has proposed 348 medicines that cover 489 formulations, including 16 fixed-dose combination under price controls. These drugs are considered to be adequate to meet the common contemporary health needs of the general population.
A Planning Commission panel observed that drug prices have shot up phenomenally in India over the past decade and a half. It pointed out that there was nearly 40% rise in all drug prices between 1996 and 2006. During the same period the price of controlled drugs rose by 0.02%, while those in the Essential Drug List (EDL) increased by 15%. The price of drugs that were neither under price control, nor under the EDL grew by 137%.
They suggested that all the drugs in the NLEM should be brought under price control since the cost of medicines constitutes over 60% of the total cost of healthcare.
However, ASSOCHAM president-elect R N Dhoot is of the opinion that only reduction in drug prices will not be able to provide access to medicines for all. The government should immediately remove all duties and taxes on all NLEM drugs to reduce cost burden on patients. He also recommended the retailer margin to be restricted to 16% and wholesaler margin to be 8%.
India’s latest NLEM has 348 essential medicines, while the 2003 list had 354. Around 47 drugs have been deleted from the 2003 list. However, no anti-cancer or anti-HIV drugs have been deleted. With the addition of around eight new cancer drugs in NLEM, 2011, the aggregate stands at 30. Carboplatin, Chlorambucil, Daunorubicin, Filgrastim, Ifosfamide, Imatinib, Mesna and Oxaliplatin are the new cancer drugs that have been included in the list. About 43 new medicines have been added in NLEM, 2011, which are from 27 therapeutic categories.
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There is one more thing that many dont know, that is, every drug has an expiry date printed on every strip along with the MRP,but the actual expiry of the molecule is almost double than what is printed on the strip. To be more precise if 2yrs is printed on the strip then the molecule will be active for at least 3-4yrs. The rule is to destroy the expired medicines but the truth is that there is a great demand for the expired medicines, for which there are a lot of brokers who collect these medicines, repack and reprint the new expiry date and the new MRP, which is comparatively lesser and holds a huge profit margins. These drugs are commonly sold in the government hospitals and health care centers. If a unhealthy price control come in effect on the drugs, the fate of pharmaceuticals is going to be horrible in India. Most of the manufacturers will have to buy the expired products from outside the country and will have to repack. Is this the fate we wanted? I am happy to realize the fact that some of my patients ask me to prescribe good effective medicines than going for cheap ineffective medicines. It is us to decide whether we should have quality medicines and health care. Than what is imposed to us by the illiterate politicians and false media….
please send alist of 348 essincial drug list comes under DPCO and their price
dear sir pls send me list of 348 drugs name those are recently decided under dpco.thank you
You can look for a document “National List of Essential Medicines of India 2011″ hosted on the following URL which lists all the names of the 348 Essential Drugs:
http://cdsco.nic.in/National%20List%20of%20Essential%20Medicine-%20final%20copy.pdf