Price increased by 12% on essential medicines...

Highest annual increase record in prices, including painkillers, antibiotics, etc....

New Delhi: Essential medicines along with painkillers, antibiotics and anti-infective will become more costlier by 12% from April. In prices of these medicines this is the highest annual increase record. 

On Monday India's drug pricing authority allowed a price hike of 12.1218% from Saturday for scheduled drugs which are under price control. From the National List of Essential Medicines, this will cover more than 800 drugs. 

The NPP allowed 10.7% increase in drug prices last year, citing a similar change in the WPI.

“Such a drastic hike will distort the price controls in place on essential medicines; the government should intervene in the interest of maintaining the affordability of these drugs. Such high back-to-back price increases are undermining the purpose of price fixation of essential medicines,”Malini Aisola, co-convenor of All India Drugs Action Network (AIDAN). 

A substantial increase in prices, the industry has been demanding, as it hs been fighting against rising input costs due to the pandemic.

From past two years, according to industry experts, the prices of some key active pharmaceutical ingredients have increased significantly.

Earlier, a pharma lobby group that represents more than 1,000 Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers, had urged the government to allow prices of all scheduled formulations to be increased by 10% with immediate effect. It had also sought a 20% increase in the prices of non-scheduled drugs.