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print versionIndian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD)
[March 31, 2023]
[Press Release]
Increasing the price of essential medicines by 12.1% is a retrograde step which will add to the out of pocket expenditure and put burden on the patients who will now have to shelve more money to buy the drugs. Dr Arun Mitra, President Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) has said that they had submitted a memorandum to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) in October 2022 demanding streamlining the prices of drugs. We had demanded Drug prices should be regulated at par with rationalisation of trade margins. The ex-factory price of the drugs should be calculated on the basis of cost involved in its production and cap the trade margin to a maximum of 30% from the factory price to the consumer. All the chemicals which are labeled as medicines should be included in the list of essential medicines because medicines are not a choice of the patient therefore it is important to bring more drugs under Drug Price Control Order (DPCO).
India’s patents office on 23rd March 2023 rejected an application from Janssen Pharmaceutica, a Belgian firm owned by Johnson and Johnson, seeking to extend its monopoly in India on Bedaquiline beyond the primary patent’s expiry this July. Bedaquiline is used in the treatment of drug-resistant TB. This would help the production of less expensive generic versions of this life-saving drug which could now cost Rs 650 to Rs 1400 per person per month, compared with Rs 3700 for the patented version. But now this order of the NPPA is very retrograde.
Dr G S Grewal former President Punjab Medical Council and member core committee of the alliance of doctors for Ethical Health Care (ADEH) said that they had met the NPPA Chairpersons earlier too and got the prices of coronary stents reduced when Shri Bhupender Singh was the chairman. He had shown agreement with our proposal to cap the prices of various medical devices. But soon he was transferred for the reasons best known to the concerned. We demand that this order to raise the prices of essential medicines be revoked. It is worth mentioning here that as per reports earlier the prices of essential medicines has been raised from 0.5 to 4% but this time the raise is exorbitant he said.
Dr Arun Mitra (President)
Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD)
Website: www.idpd.org
