CHENNAI: The prices of essential medicines are likely to rise marginally, as the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has allowed Indian drug manufacturers to increase the maximum retail price of drugs under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM).
“The NPPA has allowed drug manufacturers to increase the price of drugs on the national list by 2.3%. They are already in the process of fixing the prices,” said J Jayaseelan, chairman, Indian Drug Manufacturers Association.
He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the third edition of Pharmac South conference here on Friday. About 20% drugs, including life-saving and essential ones, come under the NLEM category in India, prices of which are decided by the NPPA.
“The price of the rest of the 80% of medicines would remain the same, as the NPPA permits manufacturers to increase the price by 10% every year,” said M Rajarathinam, chairman of the organising committee of Pharmac South 2017.
Meanwhile, State Drug Control director K Sivabalan said the present shortage of drugs faced in the State would ease soon. The public may log on to www.drugcontrol.tn.gov.in to obtain the contact numbers of all assistant directors of drug control.
“They can inform officials if there is a shortage of drugs in the pharmacies in their locality. We will contact nearby retailers and arrange for that particular drug, including life-saving drugs. If any of them are unable to travel to these pharmacies, we can even drop the medicines at their door steps with the help of drug inspectors,” added Sivabalan. Manufacturers added that stocks were ready, and the drug shortage would be over in the next few days.
Earlier, health secretary J Radhakrishnan inaugurated the two-day conference organised by IDMA on the ‘Challenges and Opportunities for Start-ups and Growing Pharma Companies’.