Govt of India caps prices of 52 more 'essential' drugs

In order to   further tighten   the  prices of essential medicines, the government of India  has brought 52 new drugs under its price control mechanism including some commonly used painkillers, antibiotics and few for  treatment of cancer , cardiovascular and skin diseases. 

These  additional  52 drugs join a list of nearly  earlier 400 essential medicines that have so far been placed under price control in India.  Now  more than 450 drug formulation packs are  under the price control mechanism of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), which entails the regulator fixing ceiling and retail prices for such medicines.

"The NPPA has fixed/revised the prices in respect of 52 formulation packs both ceiling and retail price packs under DPCO, 2013," the drug pricing regulator said.

The bulk drug formulations that have been added to the controlled list include those containing Paracetamol, Glucose, Amoxycilline, Diazepam, Codeine Phosphate, Ciprofloxacin, Losartan, Diclofenac,  Atoravastatin  &   Rosurvastatin.

Earlier in September 2014, NPPA had capped the prices of 43 formulation packs including drugs such as antibiotic Ciprofloxacin, BCG vaccine and anti-diabetic Metformin.

In July 2014  also, NPPA had reduced the prices of some of the key medicines and had fixed the price of 108 non-scheduled formulation packs of 50 anti-diabetes and cardiac medicines.