The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD has written to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who also heads the Group of Ministers looking into drug pricing, urging the Government to finalise the proposed new Drug policy.
The AIOCD letter comes even as the Group of Ministers (GoM) met on Thursday to discuss methods to determine the price of medicines sold in the market.
There is uncertainty in the market and that hurts patients and industry, said AIOCD President J.S. Shinde, reiterating the need for a market-based drug pricing policy to address patient needs and balance industry growth as outlined in the draft National Pharmaceutical Policy.
“The weighted average price (WAP) of all brands (having more than one per cent market share by volume) is the best formula as it takes into account almost 90 per cent of the cumulative market share under price control (formulations as listed in the NLEM – National List of Essential Medicines) by value in comparison to around 60 per cent taken into account by the WAP of Top 3 brands,” the letter said.
The trade body’s formula brings down the price of drugs by about 13 per cent as compared to the policy proposal, which lowers price by about nine per cent, the AIOCD head had told mediapersons during an earlier interaction.
The AIOCD formula was different from the present policy proposal that proposed fixing the ceiling price at the weighted average of the top three brands in a therapeutic category.