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Govt should pass laws to address unfair prices of new, patented and branded drugs: Experts
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A Raju, Hyderabad
May 22 , 2019
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Medical professionals and practising doctors from various hospitals have
expressed concern over the exorbitant rise in the prices of medicines
during the past few years. Even though the government of India had set
up the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to control the
prices of drugs, the pharma companies are churning out new ways to
increase the prices of new drugs and patented drugs.
Experts
from the healthcare industry are of the view that prices of medicines
have become a most contentious issue with prices of branded and even the
generic drugs being increased very high making these drugs out of the
reach of the poor patients. “If we just check the margins of even the
generic drugs, they are also having more than 1000 per cent profit
margins. This is clearly unfair,” says Dr Sai Kumar Katam, president of
Doctor of Pharmacy Association (DPA).
The pharma companies are
charging the prices of the medicines based on the market demand and
various other factors, and not on the actual cost of the manufacturing
of the medicine. “It is high time we need a legislative action to curb
the prices of medicines, because high drug prices are forcing some
patients to skip doses of critical medicines and others to choose
between their health and necessities like food and rent,” felt the DPA
president.
He also expressed his concern that some pharma
companies in the name of launching new drugs are charging exorbitant
prices on the newly launched medicines and reaping record profits. Not
just the new medicines, even the prices of old drugs are also being
raised without any logical explanation.
According to experts in
the industry, the pharmaceutical manufacturers can decide on prices of
the medicines based on the processing it goes through and the various
quality standards and in India it has two verticals. One segment of drug
is marketed in India, Asia and African countries and the other is
marketed to the US and European countries. The prices of these drugs are
almost 10 to 1000 times more than its original manufacturing cost,
observed the experts.
This issue has been raised by some of the
US authorities where more than 47 states in USA have filed suits in the
court against the generic drugs which are mostly supplied from India.
In
view of the above controversy, experts have urged the government of
India to bring in new laws to address the unfair prices on the newly
launched generic and old branded drugs.
For instance, the price
of doxycycline rose by more than 8,281 per cent between 2013 and 2014.
The devices used to deliver drugs have also been subjected to price
hikes. The price of two-pack of epinephrine increased six fold in less
than a decade from US$ 100 to over US$ 600, observed the healthcare
experts.
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