Your regular medicine for chronic disorders such as diabetes, digestive disorders, infections and even pain is set to get cheaper. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority’s (NPPA) has issued an order instructing drug manufacturing companies to fix the cost price of 39-odd formulations.
The drugs which are to cost 5% to 40% less are ciprofloxacin hydrochloride, cefotaxime, paracetamol, domperidone and metformin + glimepiride and amoxycillin + potassium clavulanate, among others as reported by The Times of India.
The move impacts multinational drugmakers like Abbott Laboratories and GSK and domestic firms. The overall impact for companies would be minimal as these drugs do not form a significant portion of the overall sales of the company.
– Angel Broking VP (research — pharma) Sarabjit Kour Nangra to TOI
Some of the major drug manufacturing who market these medicines for these chronic disorders are Sun Pharma, Cadila Healthcare, Abbott, Lupin and GlaxoSmithKline among others. The Times of India report revealed that these drugs have a market size of Rs 1,054 crore (moving annual total value).
Clearly, the NPPA order is a result of the Supreme Court calling the Centre’s drug pricing policy for essential medicines – “unreasonable and irrational” and asking for the re-examination pricing of essential medicines.
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