New Delhi: The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), India’s drug-price regulator, has approved a price hike of over 50% for essential medications used to treat various health conditions. This decision, announced by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, was made during a full authority meeting on October 8, leveraging on powers granted under Para 19 of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013.
The revised prices affect drugs crucial for the treatment of conditions such as asthma, glaucoma, thalassemia, tuberculosis, and mental health disorders. The formulations impacted include Benzylpenicillin (10 lakh IU injection), Atropine injection (0.6 mg per ml), Streptomycin powder (for injection 750 mg and 1000 mg), Salbutamol tablets (2 mg and 4 mg), Respirator solution (5 mg per ml), Pilocarpine 2% drops, Cefadroxil tablets (500 mg), Desferrioxamine (500 mg for injection), and Lithium tablets (300 mg). The NPPA highlighted that the revision of prices for these eight scheduled drugs aims to achieve the “twin objectives of availability and affordability”.
The authority noted that these drugs are generally low-cost and serve as first-line treatments essential to public health programs in India. The intention behind this move is to ensure that critical medications do not “disappear” from the market, a statement from the Authority said. Manufacturers have increasingly sought price revisions due to rising costs of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), escalating production expenses, and fluctuations in exchange rates. Many companies have also expressed the need to discontinue specific formulations, citing unsustainable production and marketing costs under the current pricing regulations. This is not the first time the NPPA has exercised such powers; similar actions were taken in 2019 and 2021, when the prices of 21 and 9 formulations were adjusted, respectively, to ensure the continued availability of essential drugs for the public.